Gundam Seed Purity Pt1
by chromeflame109
Summary: When a new terrorist group arises seeking the annihilation of all Coordinators, ZAFT, Orb and the EAF must come together to stop this new threat and the terrifying new danger it brings to Earth and space. This is my first published fic so please let me know what you think, it's set two years after GSD. Rated M for violence and language, just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

_Cosmic Era 75._

_Two years after the end of the second war, the Earth and PLANTs seem to be in a state of peace. Although the two maintain their supply of mobile suits and other such weaponry, no large-scale war has been seen in almost a full year. Although as peaceful as the world may seem, the inevitable hostilities between the Naturals and Coordinators still remains. However, a terrorist group identifying themselves as Purity surfaced late in CE74, claiming to want to create a more peaceful world for all. Their methods… eradicate the Coordinators. With its growing army and political power, Purity casts the cold shadows of war across Earth and space once more…_

-Space-

"Sir! Three suits incoming, they're Daggers!" the soldier in charge of the ship's radar called out.

"Earth forces?" the commander asked, walking to the screen and examining the three red blips.

"Unknown, could be Purity sir!" the green-clad soldier replied.

"Give the order for the pilots to launch, ready the railguns. Prepare to intercept!" the white-clad man called.

"All hands, level 1 battle stations! Pilots to your machines, prepare for immediate launch!" one of the other soldiers called across the ship's speaker system. An alarm rang out across the entire ship.

The three pilots of the ZAFT Nazca-class floated through the ship's corridors in their red pilot suits until they reached the hangar. Two of the pilots boarded green ZAKU Gunners and the third boarded a GINN. "Bridge, what's the enemy's fighting strength?" the pilot of the GINN asked through his radio.

"Three Dagger Ls. They're equipped with Jet Strikers for high mobility, be careful out there" a female voice spoke in return.

"Thanks Victoria, I'll be back in no time" the pilot replied. He quickly checked all of the systems for his suit as it was moved to the catapult. The ship was rocked several times when the guns of the Daggers connected with the hull. The GINN was equipped with its sword and machine gun and lowered down onto the catapult. "Garret Kross, GINN, soar!" the pilot called as his machine shot forth into space. The two ZAKUs soon followed, armed with their beam cannons. "Lucian, Marcel, watch it, they're equipped for high mobility" Garret warned his comrades.

"Yeah yeah, we heard Victoria" Lucian, one of the ZAKU pilots replied. Within seconds, the three ZAFT pilots were set upon by the Dagger Ls wielding their beam sabres. Garret quickly drew the GINN's sword and clashed it with one of the sabres. Sparks flew from the blades and Garret tried pushing the Dagger away.

"What the hell? Why didn't it cut?!" he heard the other pilot yelled through the communication link. The GINN's wrist flicked up, sending the Dagger's beam sabre spiralling through space. Garret quickly drew his machine gun with the GINN's free hand and fired six shots through his opponent's cockpit. He kicked the mobile suit away and watched as it exploded. The two ZAKUs fired their beam cannons at the same time but the two Daggers split off to the sides, avoiding the attacks.

"Dammit, they're too fast!" Lucian yelled, trying for another shot.

"Garret, we could use a hand here!" the other ZAKU pilot, Marcel called over the radio. The boosters of the GINN lit up and it soared towards the two Daggers, its sword and machine gun drawn. Garret fired off a few rounds from his gun, but the other suits dodged them as well.

"Bayonet, we need some covering fire!" Garret called to the ship behind the three ZAFT mobile suits. The Nazca-class fired off its railguns in reply, causing the Daggers to separate. "Lucian, Marcel, now!" Garret called. The two ZAKUs fired their weapons and the two beams pierced one of the Daggers, destroying it in seconds. Garret's GINN soared through the black space between himself and his opponent and began firing off his machine gun at the mobile suit's head. The Dagger raised its shield, blocking the bullets. Garret took the opportunity and hurled the GINN's sword like a javelin. The Dagger L lowered its shield and then saw the weapon coming. It tried to raise the shield again, but it was too late. The sword pierced the Dagger's cockpit and caused the suit to explode.

"Woo! Go Garret!" Marcel cheered. Garret sat in his cockpit, panting and trying to regain his breath as he released the controls for the GINN. "Nicely done as usual" Marcel commented.

"That was rough" Garret spoke to the console in the cockpit, placing his open palm on it. "Let's return to the ship" he spoke to his comrades and the three returned to the Bayonet. Garret's GINN was secured into place with the large clamps and Garret opened the cockpit. "Hey, Mr. Farris!" he called out to the chief mechanic. A burly man with a bald head wearing the standard green mechanic's uniform for ZAFT floated up to the GINN's open cockpit.

"What's up Garret?" he asked in his usual rough voice.

"I lost my sword in that battle; make sure you get another one ready for next time I have to head out.

"Roger that, I'll make sure it's ready" the mechanic replied.

"Thanks a lot" Garret said in reply and he floated out of his suit and towards the locker rooms. He pulled off his helmet and let his shoulder-length, blonde hair free. His silver eyes looked at the two ZAKUs piloted by Marcel and Lucian as he floated past. He arrived in the locker room to find the other two pilots waiting for him. Lucian was a tall young man with spiky, black hair and sapphire blue eyes that watched Garret enter the room. He wasn't overly skinny but he wasn't overweight either, he was an average build for his height. Lucian loved a good battle but he had a tendency to get carried away and put himself into dangerous situations. Marcel on the other hand was a smaller boy with brown hair that hung limp against his neck. His eyes were kind and the colour of emeralds. He seemed far to kind to be a soldier, but on the battlefield he changed into a completely different person.

"Nice flying out the Garret" Marcel commented, his voice quiet and kind.

"You're lucky that your GINN's sword has that special coating to resist beam sabres or you'd have been toast fighting that first one" Lucian stated. Garret quickly changed into the same red uniform that his comrades were wearing and joined them near the couches in the room. "We've been called up to see the Captain and the Commander, we shouldn't keep them waiting" Lucian explained and the three left the room. They travelled the corridors of the ship until they reached the bridge. There a tall man in a white ZAFT uniform with long, crimson hair and black eyes waited for them. Next to him was a slightly shorter and more rounded man in a black uniform with short, grey hair. The three pilots saluted their superiors and the gesture was returned.

"Well fought you three, the ship only suffered very minor damage which was caused before you all launched" the man in the black uniform stated. The man was Richard Phillips, the captain of the Bayonet.

"I must agree, you disposed of those suits quite well" the man in white stated. Commander Aston Falcon was the Bayonet's ace pilot and the highest ranking officer on board, being a member of the FAITH Special Forces.

"Thank you sir" Garret said in reply.

"Now, for the reason why you were called up here" Aston stated. "The Bayonet has been assigned a new mission. This mission involves us tracking down and destroying a transport ship that is believed to belong to the terrorist group, Purity" he explained.

"So we're finally going after those Purity bastards huh?" Lucian asked; a look of excitement on his face. Everyone from the PLANTs knew of Purity's desire for genocide against the Coordinators and any chance to fight against them was a welcome one.

"Yes, but we must proceed with extreme caution against this enemy. Reports indicate that the ship came in contact with a Coordinator space colony just the other day and eradicated the entire defence force stationed there as well as destroyed most of the colony with ease" the Commander explained.

"An entire colony? You're kidding right?" Marcel exclaimed, his jaw dropping.

"That's what the reports have told us. We have no idea what the actual fighting strength of this team is, we must act with extreme caution" Captain Phillips stated. "They're currently en route towards Earth, we are to intercept and eliminate them" he continued.

"We will probably catch up to them late tomorrow afternoon, get some rest and ready yourselves" Aston explained. The three soldiers saluted their commander and then departed from the bridge.

"What do you think Purity used to do that much damage to a colony?" Lucian asked, looking between his comrades.

"Maybe they just swarmed the place, caught the defence force off guard. If it was only a civilian colony the guard wouldn't have been overly large, overwhelming them wouldn't have been too hard" Garret pointed out.

"But still, the Captain said they did it with 'ease', do we really stand a chance against a group that even a colony defence force couldn't stop?" Marcel asked.

"Orders are orders; we don't have much choice but to fight. But I'm sure if the enemy is powerful like they say, Commander Falcon will be fighting with us too" Garret explained. "Well I'm gonna go get some rest, night guys" he continued, returning to his room. He slid his jacket off and let it float through the air. He sprawled himself out in the weightless room and closed his eyes. He quickly fell into a deep sleep and let his dreams take over his mind.

"Do you think that the rumours are true Aston? About Purity I mean" Captain Phillips asked the Commander. The crimson haired man rubbed his chin for a moment, deep in thought.

"You mean about what they're using to fight?" he asked in reply and the captain nodded. "Honestly I have no idea, perhaps the transport we're tracking may give us some answers" he said. "However, if the rumours are true… I'm not entirely sure how this coming battle will go" Aston said, his tone dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Garret was woken in the morning by the sound of the alarm echoing through the ship. "What the hell?" he groaned, pulling on his red jacket. He opened the door and saw Lucian heading past. "Lucian, what's going on?" he asked.

"We found that Purity transport, we ran into it earlier than expected. We've been ordered to launch immediately" Lucian replied as the two headed for the locker rooms. Marcel was already waiting there for them in his pilot suit. The other two quickly got changed and stopped as Aston entered the room.

"Morning boys" he smiled, opening his locker and taking his white pilot suit out. He quickly changed into it and the four headed for the hangar. The three younger pilots boarded their respective mobile suits and waited for Aston to get into his, a white GOUF Ignited. The GOUF was loaded onto the catapult first and armed with its shield. "Aston Falcon, GOUF Ignited, engage!" the commander called as his mobile suit was fired out into space. Lucian was next onto the catapult; his ZAKU was armed with its gunner equipment and then placed in a launch position.

"Lucian Williams, ZAKU, let's go!" the black haired pilot called as he joined the commander. Next up was Marcel, his ZAKU was armed the same as Lucian's.

"Marcel North, ZAKU Warrior, bring it on!" Marcel called and he too shot forth into the blackness of space. Garret was loaded onto the catapult last. A new sword for his GINN was placed on the suit's hip and its machine gun was put onto the back of the waist.

"Garret Kross, GINN, soar!" Garret called out and he joined his comrades on the weightless battlefield.

"Everyone, I should have warned you of this earlier, about the enemy fighting strength" Commander Falcon spoke over the comm. link. "There have been rumours circulating that Purity has begun the reproduction and mass-production of the mobile suits referred to as Gundams in the last two wars. Be on your guard" he explained.

"Gundams huh… this could be interesting" Lucian muttered. Ahead of them, the pilots saw an Earth Forces Agamemnon-class warship.

"That's an Agamemnon; that is far from a transport ship…" Aston said quietly to himself. "Marcel and Lucian, both of you launch ranged attacks at both the ship and it's mobile suits on my signal, Garret and I will get in close with our swords" he explained.

"But sir, we haven't even confirmed them as an enemy yet!" Marcel pointed out.

"That is why I said 'on my signal' Marcel, should they attack us, I will give the word" Aston replied. Marcel nodded and readied his beam cannon.

"Commander Falcon, the ship is deploying mobile suits! Five Moebius, three Dagger Ls and one unknown!" one of the members of the Bayonet's CIC spoke over the radio.

"Acknowledged. Lucian and Marcel, you two focus on the Moebius squad, god knows what they're carrying. Garret, we'll take on the Daggers and the unknown" Aston ordered. The two ZAKUs hovered around the Bayonet, aiming their beam cannons at the small, pink mobile armours. Three of the Moebius began firing their railguns at the green mobiles suits, the two ZAKUs flew around avoiding the attacks, trying to line up their own shots.

"Stand still you little bastards!" Lucian yelled, firing off a shot from his beam cannon. It tore through one of the Moebius, destroying the mobile armour. He grinned and then lined up another shot.

"Lucian! Two of them got through, they're armed with missiles, the three with railguns were decoys!" Marcel called, spinning around. Lucian also turned around aimed his beam cannon at one of the two missile-armed Moebius.

"Shit! We can't hit them without hitting the Bayonet!" Lucian yelled.

"I'll get them, cover me!" Marcel instructed. He threw aside the ZAKU's beam cannon and ejected its backpack, flying towards the two Moebius. The mobile suit's tomahawk was launched from the shield and Marcel grabbed it with the ZAKU's free hand, initiating the beam edge. He heard Lucian take out another of the Moebius while the last one was trying to stop him reaching the two with the missiles. He boosted forward quickly and slammed his tomahawk into the cockpit of one of the Moebius, destroying it. He looked to the other Moebius and realised that there was no way he could reach it in time. "Dammit!" Marcel roared and he hurled his tomahawk at the Moebius. His eyes widened when the weapon struck home and cleaved through the mobile armour. Behind him, Lucian destroyed the last of the Moebius squad and he moved to join Marcel.

"Still got your rifle?" Lucian asked.

"Yeah, let's go help Garret and the Commander" Marcel replied and the two ZAKUs moved off to join their comrades.

Garret flew forward, his sword drawn, moving towards the three Daggers. One of the Daggers engaged its beam sabre and the two exchanged blows a few times. Garret lowered his sword and then quickly flicked the GINN's wrist up, cutting of the Dagger's sword hand. He then quickly boosted forward and drove the GINN's sword through the enemy cockpit. He shoved the mobile suit away as it exploded. "Commander!" Garret called as he saw Aston's GOUF under attack by the other two Dagger Ls. The GOUF pulled it's sword from its shield and swiftly cleaved through the waist of the first Dagger. As it exploded, the second flew to the side of the GOUF and raised its beam sabre high. The GOUF's shield arm stretched out and its heat whip shot out, piercing the cockpit of the attacking suit. Aston kicked the Dagger L away as it exploded. "Whoa…" Garret whispered as he watched.

"The unknown mobile suit launched from the Agamemnon-class has been identified, GAT-X102 Duel! It's a Gundam!" Victoria called over the communicators of the four pilots.

"I guess the rumours were true…" Aston said quietly. "Everyone be careful, it may only be a mass-produced model but its fighting strength is unknown, attack together!" he ordered the three red pilots. Within moments, the blue and white mobile suit came into view, wielding its beam rifle and its shield.

"For the sake of our blue and pure world!" the ZAFT pilots heard a voice yell. Obviously the Duel's pilot, they thought. The Gundam raised its rifle and fired off a quick succession of shots towards Aston. The commander raised his shield and deflected the shots and raised its other arm, firing off a few shots from its beam guns on its arm. The Dual quickly moved to the side and then rammed its shield into the GOUF.

"Argh!" Aston groaned as his mobile suit was thrown back. He quickly steadied himself and was forced to quickly raise his shield as the Duel fired on him again. "Garret! Use the Phase Cutter!" Aston called out as he tried to defend the Gundam's attacks.

"Roger" Garret replied and he flicked a switch on his console. In response, a clear gel came from the hilt of the GINN's sword and covered the blade of the weapon. "Phase Cutter engaged" Garret said and he boosted towards the Duel. He swung the sword heavily at the Duel which raised its shield in response. The sword blade cut clean through the shield, catching the pilot of the Duel by surprise and causing him to retreat from the GINN slightly.

"The hell is with that sword?!" Garret heard him yell. The Duel threw aside the remains of its shield and drew one of its beam sabres with the newly freed hand. "Filthy Coordinator!" the pilot roared, firing his rifle as he approached Garret. The GINN boosted around, dodging the shots as Aston's white GOUF tried to circle around behind the Duel. "Not a chance" the pilot sneered as he noticed the commander. He threw his beam sabre at the GOUF, piercing its left leg, causing the limb to explode. Garret tried to use the opening to hit the Duel, but before he could reach it, the Gundam drew its second sabre and blocked his attack.

"Damn, this guy's good for a Natural" Garret commented. He was taken by surprise when a red energy beam shot past his camera between his GINN and the Duel. He boosted back a bit and then turned to see Lucian and Marcel's ZAKUs approaching. Marcel let loose a hail of shots at the Duel. With no shield, the pilot was forced to move around and avoid the shots. In response, Aston also began firing the GOUFs arm beam guns as well; to further restrict the movement of the Duel. Several of the rounds grazed the mobile suit's armour, but none were direct hits.

"Lucian, fire a beam above him. Garret, move in and take him out with your sword when he moves to avoid it!" Commander Falcon ordered. He and Marcel restricted the Duel's sideways movement and when Lucian fired his cannon, the Gundam moved down. Garret quickly turned his boosters onto full and readied his sword.

"Argh! Die!" the Duel's pilot yelled, firing off several beams at the GINN. One of the shots destroyed the GINN's free arm and its head, but Garret didn't falter. He reached the Duel and drove his sword into the mobile suit's cockpit before dragging it up through the Duel's head. The Gundam exploded, throwing the GINN backwards and causing Garret to be thrown around in his seat. He leaned down on the cockpit, panting and trying to regain his breath.

"Garret, are you ok?" Marcel asked, flying over to the stationary GINN.

"Yeah, I'm fine" he replied quietly. He checked the GINN's systems to make sure that there was no major damage to the suit. "Thrusters are overheated… looks like I'm not moving" he sighed, looking at his console. Garret was taken by surprise when Marcel's ZAKU grabbed the hand of his GINN and began flying back to the Bayonet with him. "Thanks" Garret said.

"No problem, good job out there" Marcel commented. Lucian and Aston flew past them, not held down by the weight of a second mobile suit like Marcel. The two reached the ship and Garret's GINN was secured in place by clamps like the rest of the mobile suits. He climbed out and was surprised to see the mechanics already working on the GOUF's missing leg.

"Garret, well done out there. You performed extremely well" Commander Falcon said, approaching the other pilot.

"Thank you sir" Garret replied with a salute.

"It seems I got careless out there" Aston sighed, looking at the GOUF. "I guess even aces make mistakes huh?" he asked Garret with a grin.

"What about the enemy ship sir?" Garret asked, he had realised that with all the fighting, they had not done anything about the ship.

"Unfortunately it escaped during the battle, we have been ordered to pursue it however. We have to stop it before it gets to Earth" Aston replied. "I will explain everything properly later, meet in the briefing room with the others in twenty minutes" the Commander ordered. Garret saluted his superior and then floated off to the locker room. He changed into his standard uniform and then moved to join Marcel and Lucian near the couches.

"Well, I think we all have you two to thank for our victory today" Lucian commented, looking between Marcel and Garret.

"Um… why me?" Marcel asked; his voice quiet.

"You took out those two Moebius. I heard some crewmembers saying that those missiles they were armed with were anti-ship missiles. If they'd connected, we probably would have lost the Bayonet" Lucian explained.

"It was just a lucky shot really, if my tomahawk hadn't hit, the ship would have been hit" Marcel commented.

"Stop being such a downer Marcel, you saved the ship. Be proud of that" Lucian said, jabbing Marcel in the shoulder. "I think we all know what Garret did though" Lucian grinned.

"Yeah, I can't believe you took down the Duel!" Marcel said excitedly.

"I only beat it because the pilot was a natural, if that had actually been Commander Joule, we'd all be dead now" Garret commented.

"Man, you two really don't like accepting praise do you?" Lucian asked, looking between his two comrades.

"I'm too tired to be praised right now. Come on, the Commander wanted to see us in the briefing room" Garret and explained and the three pilots left the room. They entered the briefing room to find both Commander Aston and Captain Phillips waiting for them. The three pilots saluted them and waited for the gesture to be returned.

"Be seated" the captain ordered and the three pilots sat down. The artificial gravity had been turned on so they were able to sit down without floating away. "As you all know, the enemy ship managed to get away during our battle with its mobile suit team. We assume they were hoping that the Duel would take us down, but they were wrong" Richard said, looking to Garret.

"We have been informed that the vessel is heading towards Earth and there are reports of a battle going on near the planet itself. Our forces as well as a detachment of Earth Forces units are engaging a Laurasia-class, two Two Hundred and Fifty Metre-class ships and one Archangel-class ship" Aston explained.

"An Archangel-class?!" Lucian exclaimed.

"Yes. The fact the Earth Forces are helping us with this battle shows that the enemy is indeed Purity. We believe that the ship that escaped us may be carrying reinforcements as well as possibly cargo that they may need to get to Earth. It must be stopped before it reaches the battle zone" Aston explained. "It has also been confirmed that the forces above Earth have deployed more Gundams into the fight, they are using the GAT-X303 Aegis and another Duel" Aston pointed out.

"Another Duel… they really are reproducing the Gundams" Marcel said, rubbing his chin.

"Coincidently, we have no idea if that ship we engaged has any other Gundams on board, we must proceed with caution when fighting it again" Captain Phillips stated. "Be ready to launch at any time, we have no idea when we will catch the enemy ship" he continued.

"I apologise, but for obvious reasons I will not be able to join you for the next battle, you three will be on your own" Aston sighed, looking between his pilots. "But after seeing how you handled that last fight, there is no doubt in my mind that you will be fine" he said with a smile. "You're all dismissed" he spoke. The three pilots all stood, saluted and left the room.

"You coming to the cafeteria with us Garret?" Marcel asked. Garret in reply shook his head.

"I'll eat later, I need to go check some stuff with my GINN" he replied.

"Ok, see you later then" Marcel said. Garret waved his friend away and then returned to the hangar.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, Garret!" Mr. Farris called out as the pilot approached his mobile suit. Garret turned and waited as the mechanic approached him. "It seems your GINN's thrusters were overheated in that last fight, how hard did you push the thing?" he asked.

"I honestly have no idea why they overheated like that, I didn't really do anything unusual" Garret replied.

"Might just have to face it, your GINN is getting old. Compared to ZAKUs and GuAIZ Rs, that suit is pretty out dated" Mr. Farris explained.

"I know. It's still alright for now, I just won't be able to push it too hard" Garret said and he boarded the mobile suit. He booted up the systems of the mobile suit and began typing away on the keyboard. Slowly he began to lose himself as he checked over all of the mobile suit's systems. He was awakened from his trance by Marcel's voice talking to him.

"Garret, you ok there?" the younger boy asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm ok" Garret replied, a little confused as to when his friend had appeared.

"Here, I bought your dinner up to you, you're clearly not coming out of there anytime soon" Marcel laughed. Garret got up and floated out of his GINN, taking a plate of beef, potatoes and vegetables from Marcel.

"Thanks" Garret said with a smile.

"Is your GINN alright?" Marcel asked as Garret ate.

"I think so, it seems like there was just a small blockage in the cooling system, I told Mr. Farris about it and it should be cleared before we go into battle again" Garret explained. Marcel nodded in understanding and let his friend eat.

"I heard the Commander talking to Lucian, apparently he's getting transferred to another ship" Marcel sighed once Garret had finished.

"The Commander or Lucian?" Garret asked.

"Lucian. The Commander said that he's going to be sent to a ship in the fleet defending the PLANTs" Marcel said sadly.

"That won't impress him, he'd much rather be on the front lines" Garret said. Marcel nodded in agreement and the two both floated in the hangar talking for some time before retiring to their rooms. The two only slept for a few hours before they were woken by the sound of alarms. "Seriously… already…?" Garret groaned as he got up. He rubbed his eyes and then headed for the locker room and got changed into his pilot suit.

"Look alive there Garret!" Lucian called as he came into the room.

"Is it that ship again?" Garret asked in reply and Lucian nodded. Marcel was the last to enter the room and once the three were changed they all headed into the hangar. Garret climbed swiftly into his GINN and was placed on the catapult.

"GINN, all systems green, launch anytime" Victoria's voice said over the comm. link.

"Garret Kross, GINN, soar!" Garret called as he shot along the catapult. He was quickly joined by the two ZAKUs and the three sighted the Agamemnon-class ship.

"Garret, since you were the one that gave us the victory in the last fight, I'm putting you in charge of this one in my absence. Lucian, Marcel, obey his orders" Commander Falcon spoke over the comm. link.

"Roger that sir!" both Lucian and Marcel replied.

"Slow down, we'll let the enemy come to us" Garret said and the three mobile suits slowed their movement. For the battle, only Lucian's ZAKU was equipped with the gunner wizard pack. They waited for about a minute until Garret made his next order. "Lucian, fire at their engines, see if you can prevent their movement" he ordered.

"You got it!" Lucian responded eagerly and raised his beam cannon. "Target locked, fire!" Lucian called and the red and white beam shot out towards the enemy ship. The attack struck home striking the ship's engines. The Agamemnon-class immediately slowed to a halt and the catapults opened up.

"Now we've got their attention, let's kick ass!" Marcel said eagerly, flying forward with his beam rifle ready.

"Bayonet, what's the enemy fighting strength?" Garret asked the ship as he saw mobile suits launching.

"Six mobile suits, two M1 Astrays, two High-Manoeuvre GINNs and two Windams. The Windams are equipped with Jet Strikers" Victoria said in reply.

"Roger. Lucian, try and hit those GINNs before they get too close, we can't outrun them" Garret orders. The other pilot acknowledged the order and began firing at the black and purple suits with his beam cannon. "Marcel, you take out the Windams, again try and do it before they get too close, I'll go for the Astrays" he continued. Lucian was the first to claim a kill, hitting one of the GINNs with his beam cannon. Marcel was next, striking one of the two Windams in the cockpit with his beam rifle.

The second GINN closed in quickly on Lucian and cut through the ZAKU's cannon with its sword. "Damn you!" Lucian roared. He pulled out his tomahawk and drove it into the cockpit of the ZAKU. He kicked the mobile suit away and then watched it explode. "GINNs gone!" he informed the others.

"Windam incoming!" Marcel called. He put his rifle away and then pulled out his tomahawk. He swung it horizontally but the Windam moved down, the attack however still removed it's head. "I'll take you down!" Marcel roared. He quickly pulled a hand grenade from the ZAKU's waist, pulled the pin and then rammed it in the Windam's exposed neck. The mobile suit exploded in front of him, blowing Marcel back.

"Guess that just leaves you two" Garret said, raising his machine gun. One of the Astrays tried an overhead swing with its beam sabre. The GINN reached up and grabbed the mobile suit's wrist before putting his machine gun to the cockpit and holding in the trigger, emptying the whole clip. He flung the Astray beside as it exploded and then spun around and went to fire at the next Astray. "Shit, emptied the clip!" Garret exclaimed as the Astray neared him. He went to reload the gun but the enemy suit fired it's beam rifle and destroyed the GINN's gun arm. Garret quickly pulled out his sword with his free hand, boosted forward and drove the blade through the Astray's cockpit. He retreated slightly when the suit exploded and the three pilots joined each other again.

"Garret, you ok?" Lucian asked upon sighting the GINN's condition.

"Yeah, only lost an arm. Let's bring down that ship" Garret replied, turning to face the Agamemnon-class. "We just have to take out the bridge and it's done for" he explained. The three mobile suits flew towards the stationary ship, readying their weapons. The GINN had its sword ready and the two ZAKUs prepared their rifles. They reached the ship and the two ZAKUs focused on destroying the ship's weapons while Garret headed for the bridge with his GINN. He reached it and hovered in front of it for a moment, looking into the bridge through his main camera. He then closed his eyes and cut through it with his sword. The three flew away swiftly as the ship exploded behind them. "They were scared… terrified…" Garret said quietly, picturing the faces of the people he saw.

"Woo! We did it!" Lucian cheered, thrusting the fist of his ZAKU into the air. Marcel laughed at his friend, but Garret remained silent. The three landed back on the ship and disembarked from their machines.

"Can you guys go report to the Commander? I'm tired, I need to get some sleep" Garret told his friends before floating away to his room. He threw off his jacket once he reached his room, curled up in mid-air and fell asleep within minutes.

"Garret is developing into a fine pilot, huh Aston?" Captain Phillips asked when the two were alone on the bridge. The ship floated motionless in space while the two officers awaited their crew's next orders.

"Indeed he is; he's handled himself exceptionally well lately. Even I was taken by surprise when he took down the Duel. The three of them have all gotten good" Commander Falcon said in reply. "Haha, I'm afraid my own skills are beginning to slip" he said with a sarcastic smile.

"What do you think our next orders will be?" Richard asked.

"I'm assuming it will be one of two things. We'll either be called back to the PLANTs or we'll be deployed to assist in the battle over Earth" Aston spoke in reply.

"That battle still hasn't ended?" Richard asked, rubbing his bare chin. Aston shook his head in reply.

"Although Purity have their Gundams, ZAFT and the Earth Forces have more skilled pilots. Purity however, also has numbers. So far the losses to all three sides have been rather heavy and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight anytime soon" Aston explained.

"Therefore, it would seem that we'll most likely be deployed there to help, especially with the news of Garret taking down that Gundam reaching HQ" Richard pointed out and Aston nodded in agreement. "We'll just have to see what our orders are…" he continued and again Aston nodded.

Garret's awoke the next morning and looked around the room. It was good to not wake up to an alarm, he thought. He pulled his jacket on and floated out into the corridor, leaving it undone. He headed for the cafeteria and found both Lucian and Marcel already there. "Mornin'!" Lucian called out. Garret retrieved his breakfast tray and sat with them.

"Where do you think we'll be sent next?" Marcel asked, looking between his two friends.

"Not sure, but I know the ship taking me back to the PLANTs will rendezvous with us in about two hours. It sucks, I'd way prefer to be on the frontlines kicking Purity's ass!" Lucian complained, slamming the table with his fist.

"At least if you're at the PLANTs you'll be closer to your family" Marcel said optimistically.

The three continued idle conversation as they ate their meal, mostly remembering their times together back at the training academy. Their conversation was disturbed when Commander Falcon entered the room.

"Lucian, your transport ship has arrived early, you'll need to go pack your things while they load up your ZAKU" he spoke to the black haired pilot.

"Yes sir…" Lucian sighed in return, getting to his feet. He left the room and Aston looked at the other two pilots.

"We have our orders. The Bayonet is to assist allied forces in the battle against Purity above Earth. We'll be facing some extreme numbers, as well as Gundams" Aston explained.

"What Gundams have been confirmed?" Marcel asked.

"So far, allied forces have engaged against the GAT-X102 Duel, GAT-X303 Aegis, GAT-X103 Buster, GAT-X207 Blitz and GAT-X252 Forbidden" Aston listed, reading a sheet of paper in his hand.

"So what exactly do we have to do?" Garret asked, looking to the commander.

"Simply go into the battle zone and destroy as many of them as possible without getting shot down" Commander Falcon explained.

"What about my GINN? It's kind of minus one arm right now" Garret said.

"Hopefully we can get the damage repaired before we get there. If not, you'll just have to sit the battle out" Aston replied. "But let's hope it doesn't come to that" he said. Garret sighed and then both he and Marcel went to see Lucian off. They found their friend about to board his shuttle over to the Laurasia-class that was to be his escort.

"Lucian!" Marcel called out, causing the soldier to turn around. "You weren't gonna leave without saying goodbye were you?" the smaller boy asked.

"Sorry. I'm just so pissed off that they're assigning me to a defence force. It doesn't make any sense" Lucian groaned.

"I'm sure they'll send you back to the front eventually, just do your best out there" Garret explained.

"Yeah I know… I still don't like it though…" Lucian groaned. "Well I have to go, I'll see you all again when you come back to the PLANTs" he continued. Garret and Marcel nodded and watched as their friend boarded the shuttle and departed from the ship.

"We'd best be checking our machines" Garret said and Marcel nodded in agreement. The two headed into the hangar and examined the three mobile suits there. Marcel's ZAKU looked like it was in perfect shape. The leg of Aston's GOUF had also been replaced the suit looked ready for battle. Garret's GINN however had a large piece of material secured over the location of its missing arm.

"Do you think your GINN will be ready in time Garret?" Marcel asked.

"I'm not sure, I hope so though. I don't want to leave everything to you and the Commander" Garret replied as he floated to the cockpit of his mobile suit. The two spent the majority of their day inspecting their mobile suits before heading to bed early for a good rest.

It took the Bayonet a day and a half to reach the battle zone. When they got there however, Garret was awoken from sleep by the ship's alarms. "All hands proceed to level one battle stations; pilots proceed to your machines and prepare for immediate launch!" Victoria called through the ship's speakers. Garret quickly emerged from bed and went to the locker room, changing into his pilot suit. He headed into the hangar and his heart sank when he saw only half of his GINN's arm had been repaired.

"Garret, I want you to go to the bridge and assist Captain Phillips" Aston said, moving past him and boarding his white GOUF. Garret sighed and floated past Marcel as the smaller boy headed for his ZAKU.

"Hey Garret, you'll be out there soon enough. I'll make sure of it" Marcel said quietly. Garret gave him a puzzled look, but the pilot was already boarding his machine. Garret then proceeded to the bridge and sat in the seat next to the man in the black uniform.


	4. Chapter 4

"Commander Falcon sent me to assist on the bridge sir" Garret explained and Richard nodded in response.

"Marcel North, ZAKU Warrior, bring it on!" Garret heard the pilot's voice call from Victoria's station. His eyes lingered on the small, brunette girl for a moment. Like Marcel and Lucian, Victoria was a friend of his from his academy days. Victoria was short, a little taller than Marcel however and had short, brown hair. Her sapphire blue eyes were almost motherly and she was always kind to the three pilots, knowing how much strain the fighting put them under.

"Ready the 66 millimetres, target the two hundred and fifty metre to the starboard side!" the captain ordered. He waited for a few seconds as the ship rotated slightly. "Fire!" he roared and the beam cannons launched their attacks. However a mobile suit flew in front of the beams before they connected with the ship and deflected them. "What the hell was that?!" Richard demanded.

"GAT-X252 Forbidden sir! It's using its energy deflection armour to protect the enemy ships sir!" a man sitting next to Victoria called in reply.

"Shit! We can't get to the ships with that thing there…" the captain groaned.

"I'll take care of it Richard" Aston's voice spoke through the bridge as his face appeared on the main screen. "Just keep suppression fire on anything that gets near the Bayonet and wait until I take down the Forbidden" he spoke. Richard nodded and the picture on the screen vanished. Garret looked all around the bridge as the captain continuously called out his orders and the crew followed them.

"Marcel's ZAKU has engaged the Duel sir!" Victoria informed the captain. Both Richard and Garret looked up onto the screen and saw the green ZAKU Warrior engaged with the blue and white Gundam.

"I'll take you down!" Marcel roared, taking his tomahawk from his shield. He swung it forward, smashing it against the Duel's beam sabre. Sparks crackled from the two blades until the two mobile suits moved away from each other.

"You Coordinators are a blight on all of humanity, in the name of Lord Alastair, I'll kill every last one of you!" a male voice called into Marcel's cockpit.

"Alastair, who's that?" Marcel wondered quietly to himself. The two clashed their blades together once more and this time Marcel pushed forward, driving the Gundam's own beam sabre towards its cockpit. The Duel drove its knee up and sent the ZAKU tumbling through space.

"Marcel! Are you alright, do you need a hand?" Aston called to his comrade.

"I'm fine sir! You focus on getting the Forbidden!" Marcel replied. "If Garret can do this in a GINN, I can beat this bastard in a ZAKU!" Marcel roared. He boosted forward and slammed his shoulder into the Duel, driving the suit into an asteroid. Marcel sheathed his tomahawk and then pinned the Gundam to the rock by the arms with his ZAKU. He opened his cockpit and floated over to that of the Duel, using the emergency release switch. The pilot looked up in his grey pilot suit, a startled look on his face. "I'm taking this!" Marcel declared, tearing the pilot from the seat and flinging him out into space.

"You bastard!" the Purity pilot called, heading for his suit again. Marcel quickly pulled the pistol from his belt and unleashed three rounds into the man. He then closed the Duel's cockpit and reboarded his ZAKU.

"What the hell is that kid doing?" Captain Phillips asked, watching the event on the Bayonet's screens.

"He's bringing the Duel this way Captain; I think he's going to put it in the hangar!" Victoria said startled in reply. Garret watched and then grinned as he saw what Marcel was doing and remembered his words.

"Captain Phillips!" Marcel said to the ship through his comm. link.

"Marcel, the hell are you doing?!" Richard demanded in reply.

"I'm dropping this machine off for Garret to use sir! We need the help out here!" Marcel replied as he neared the ship. Richard's eyes widened and then he looked over to Garret.

"Permission to go sir?" the pilot asked; a serious look in his eyes.

"Granted" Captain Phillips replied and the pilot headed to the elevator and made his way to the ship's hangar. He watched as the ZAKU landed on the Bayonet, the Duel in tow. He released the Gundam and then stepped onto the catapult.

"Garret! Be careful in that thing, it is an enemy machine after all!" Mr. Farris instructed as the pilot climbed into the cockpit.

"Yeah. I know" he said, closing the cockpit hatch. He secured himself in the seat and booted up the systems. "Trans-Phase Armour? I thought the five from Heliopolis used Phase Shift Armour; the Earth Forces' second line of GAT series used the Trans-Phase. These have been upgraded" Garret said with a grin. "Ok, so this thing is missing one of its beam sabres but it still has the other and its rifle. The shield is still here too, I think I can do this" he said, his eyes scanning the screens. The Duel was placed on the catapult and Garret did a final check of the systems.

"Can you fly it?" Richard's voice asked him.

"I should be able to sir. It doesn't seem too complicated" Garret replied.

"Garret, you can launch anytime… be careful" Victoria spoke to him, whispering the last two words.

"I will. This is Garret Kross, Duel Gundam, soar!" the pilot called and the mobile suit shot out into space. He found Marcel waiting for him in the ZAKU and he slowed to meet his comrade.

"Told you I'd get you out here huh?" Marcel asked, smiling.

"I wasn't expecting this. I mean hell; you stole me a freaking Gundam!" Garret exclaimed in reply. "This isn't the time though, let's kick ass!" Garret called, taking off with his beam rifle and shield ready. "Commander! I'm transmitting you the IFF of this mobile suit, don't shoot me down!" Garret informed the GOUF pilot.

"Roger that Garret. Be careful, you've never piloted something like that before" Aston replied as he sliced through a Strike Dagger with his sword. "Marcel and Garret, I want both of you to focus on taking down the Buster and Aegis, allied forces have already taken out the Blitz. Engage them on their own, you don't stand a chance against both together!" the commander ordered.

The Duel and ZAKU flew off towards the grey and blue Archangel-class ship where the two Gundams were positioned. "They're both defending that ship, how do we separate them?" Marcel asked as the two stopped behind an asteroid for a moment.

"I have a plan, get to these coordinates and wait for me" Garret instructed, transmitting a location to the ZAKU. Marcel acknowledged the orders and flew off. "The last communications say that the pilot of that Buster is named Allen, that'll do me" Garret said, skimming the communications log. The green and red machines turned as the saw the Duel flying towards them.

"Harrison! What the hell are you doing here?! I thought you were ordered to take out that new Nazca that showed up!" a brusque, male voice called over the suit's comm. link.

"There's a larger enemy force hiding in some ship debris not too far from it, Allen I need a hand!" Garret replied. He hoped that the other pilot didn't notice the different voice.

"Argh! These guys are pissing me off!" the voice yelled back. Garret figured that must have been Allen. "Hilde, guard the Cherubim!" Allen instructed someone. Garret noted it was probably the pilot of the Aegis.

"Yeah, whatever" a cold, female voice replied. The Buster quickly headed over to Garret and the two flew away with the Duel leading.

"Has anything gotten through to the Cherubim?" Garret asked, trying to act like an ally to the Buster pilot.

"Not a thing, Hilde and I have shot every one of those Coordinator insects down" Allen stated triumphantly. Garret's fist clenched as he resisted the urge to turn and shoot the Buster where it was. He knew however that he couldn't afford to take risks; he had to reach Marcel first.

"Oi! There's a ZAKU there, let's kill it!" Allen grinned, combining his two guns to form a shotgun like weapon. Garret quickly realised the suit was Marcel; he hadn't reached the rendezvous point yet.

"Shit" Garret murmured and he raised his beam rifle. "Marcel!" Garret yelled and the ZAKU spun around and saw the Buster coming. Garret fired a shot that grazed the hip of the other Gundam which turned around instantly.

"What the hell Harrison?!" Allen roared, opening a video link with the Duel. "Z… ZAFT?!" he stuttered, a surprised look on his face. "Hell. An ambush…" he sighed.

The Duel put away its rifle and quickly pulled out its beam sabre. Garret roared as he boosted forward, his shield out in front of him with his sabre pulled back, ready for a thrust attack. The Buster raised its shotgun and went to fire a shot when the ZAKU fired on it. Allen quickly separated his gun and aimed one at each of the two suits approaching him. Garret deflected the shot fired at him with his shield and Marcel dodged the one aimed at him. The Buster ascended quickly as the Duel reached it. Garret rammed his sabre through the leg of the Gundam and then retreated backwards. The leg exploded and Allen looked in horror as the ZAKU neared him with its tomahawk, there was nothing he could do.

"Allen!" a female voice yelled and a large red and white energy beam shot in front of the ZAKU, causing it to stop. The Aegis rammed the green mass-produced suit in its mobile armour form, sending Marcel tumbling through space.

"Damn, it's the Aegis!" Marcel groaned, stabilising his suit. The red mobile suit did a U-turn behind the ZAKU and came around for a second strike. Garret sheathed his sabre and pulled out his rifle and aimed it at the Aegis. He pulled the trigger and the shot struck one of its claws, destroying it and throwing the machine off course. The Aegis transformed into its mobile suit form and pulled out its beam rifle. Marcel flew over to Garret and the two readied themselves as the two Gundams moved to join each other.

"I'll kill you for stealing that suit and killing Harrison!" Allen yelled, obviously aimed at Garret. He joined his weapons together to form his shotgun, aiming at the Duel. He went to fire at the blue and white suit when a series of multi-coloured lights exploded near the grey and blue Archangel-class ship. "Dammit... time to get out of here..." Allen groaned, putting his weapons away. The Aegis put its rifle away and the two Gundams turned and headed for their ship.

"Not a chance!" Marcel called, raising his arm to throw his tomahawk but Garret grabbed the arm.

"They're retreating Marcel, leave it" Garret said quietly. Marcel groaned and then lowered his arm. The two saw flares come from their own ship and began returning to it. The ZAKU landed in the hangar first, being secured in its usual space. When Garret landed, he noticed that the GOUF was already on-board, missing and arm, leg and its head. The red-clad pilot emerged from his suit and saw the commander being escorted out of the hangar by two doctors. Garret removed his helmet and floated over to Marcel. "What happened to the Commander?" he asked the brown haired boy.

"I heard Mr. Farris say that he took a few hits from the Forbidden... I hope he's alright" Marcel replied sadly. The two changed back into their uniforms and then proceeded to the bridge of the Bayonet.

"Kross, North, nice flying out there" Captain Phillips said as they arrived. The two pilots saluted him and then stood at ease.

"Thank you sir. Do you know if the Commander is alright?" Garret asked; a concerned look on his face.

"He took some bad hits in the battle, turns out that he was fatigued also. He's had a cut on his head tended to, prescribed some sleeping pills and he has to stay in his quarters for a day or two so he'll be out of action for now" Richard explained. He could see the worry on the faces of the two pilots and smiled. "He'll be fine boys, it'll take more than this to keep Aston down" the captain reassured them. "Are you two doing ok? Both of you have been pushing yourselves pretty hard lately" he asked.

"I'm fine sir" Garret spoke and Marcel mimicked the reply.

"Victoria, go to the cafeteria with them. You've been working hard lately too" Captain Phillips instructed the CIC crew member. The brunette girl got to her feet and moved to join her friends, her green jacket trailing slightly behind her. "Garret, Marcel, be sure to get some rest. Leave your machines to the mechanics and let your hair down a bit" the captain spoke. The three soldiers saluted their superior and headed for the cafeteria.

"Garret, you were amazing out there. I can't believe how well you piloted that Duel" Victoria commented, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, even I was surprised how well he did in an unknown suit" Marcel commented.

"The controls and OS are pretty simple; it's clearly been modified for use by Naturals. Anyone could fly it" Garret explained as they entered the cafeteria.

"Even me?" Victoria asked.

"Probably, if a Natural can do it you should have no problem" Garret replied. The three sat down with trays of food and began eating.

"If that Duel has a Natural piloting OS, doesn't that mean its overall capabilities would probably be decreased?" Marcel asked Garret, twirling his fork around in his fingers.

"Most likely, I'm going to see if I can rewrite it later and try to improve it. I even noticed when I was piloting it just before, I couldn't seem to push it as hard as my GINN" Garret explained.

"Didn't the Captain say to leave your suits alone for now?" Victoria asked the two boys. They both looked at her and sighed. On the ship, there wasn't really much for a pilot to do except work on their mobile suits, making sure they were working fine and prepping them for the next battles. "Let's all just chill out, we haven't spent time together really since we left the PLANTs" she pointed out.

"Alright, we'll leave the suits alone for now. Right Garret?" Marcel asked, looking to his friend.

"Right" Garret replied and the three rose to their feet and went to leave the cafeteria.

_**If people wouldn't mind, could you please leave me some reviews just letting me know what you think of the fic so far? I just want to see if people are actually enjoying it and what they are enjoying before I put up much more.**_

_**Thanks,**_

_**Chrome**_


	5. Chapter 5

"Hey! Turn on the T.V, the leader of Purity is going to make a speech!" a soldier called, floating into the cafeteria. The head chef clicked the power button on a remote and the T.V switched on showing the scene of a large conference. Standing behind a podium was a tall, thin man with his black hair tied in a ponytail. He wore a white suit and stared out at the audience before him. Garret noticed that one of his eyes was gold, the other silver.

"_Naturals of Earth, I am Alastair Masamune_" the man spoke, his voice smooth and easily projected out into the crowd. Its tone sent shivers down Garret's spine. It was smooth, but also cold. "_As I'm sure all of you are aware, a large battle has just ended above our beautiful planet. A battle between Purity, those who wish to protect our people and bring about a warless world and on the other side were the combined forces of ZAFT and the Earth Forces! The Earth Forces who used to be so against the Coordinators now fight by their side, a traitor to its people, all of you! Clearly they forget the actions of Zala and Durandal and how the Coordinators cannot be trusted! I will not force you to fight for my cause as that is not my way, but should you choose to raise your hands to help create a free, warless world, then you shall be welcomed with open arms as brothers and sisters to all of humanity_" Alastair spoke, never raising his voice to a yell once. He volume rose but his tone didn't change at all; it stayed that cold, smooth voice the whole time.

"Smart way to play things" Garret stated as they continued to watch.

"What do you mean?" Marcel asked. Both his and Victoria's eyes were on the blonde boy now.

"Notice how he never got angry once? He kept his cool the whole time while slandering us Coordinators. This way he's not seen as some war monger but more like some sort of visionary. The way he repeated 'a warless world', that's the desire of everyone, Natural and Coordinator alike; he's just yanking the heartstrings and manipulating them a bit to make us look like villains. Also, he's not forcing the people to join Purity, he's giving them the choice so he looks like more of a good guy" Garret explained.

"Wow, you got all that from just one little speech?" Victoria asked, rather impressed with her friend.

"Funny thing is, everything Garret said makes sense" Marcel commented.

"In public, he's the perfect leader. But behind the scenes, there must be something else going on…" Garret spoke. The three left the cafeteria as the speech carried on and they headed to the observation deck. There they all hovered, weightless, watching the stars fly by.

-Australia, Sydney-

Alastair stared out at the people before him, a smile on his lips as he listened to their chant "PU-RI-TY! PU-RI-TY!" He turned to see a tall young man and a young woman slightly shorter standing behind him. The young man was well built with rather pale skin. His head was covered by black hair that was cut short, stopping halfway down his neck. His black eyes were locked on Alastair. The young woman was slightly shorter than her companion and much thinner. Her deep purple hair hung near her waist and her sapphire eyes also watched the white-clad man.

"Ah, Allen, Hilde. It's good to see both of you doing well after that chaotic battle, I do apologise for summoning you here the second your ship landed. I do not however see Harrison, where is he?" Alastair asked, looking between the two.

"Dead. Some bastard ZAFT pilot killed him and stole his suit" the young man, Allen, replied.

"I see… an unfortunate turn of events. He was a good pilot. But alas we cannot let a single loss halt our movement, nor can we allow our feelings of hatred and revenge to cloud our minds. On a more pleasant note, I hear you two almost singlehandedly took down almost forty mobile suits and protected the Cherubim" he said, a smile on his face with the last comment. "Tell me, how are the Buster and Aegis handling? Does the OS work sufficiently for both of you?" he asked.

"Yeah, they fly fine" Allen replied.

"Yes sir, everything seems to be working exactly like it should" Hilde replied.

"Very good, I believe I will be asking you both to remain on Earth for the time being" Alastair explained, glancing at the still roaring crowd.

"Why is that sir?" Hilde asked the man, tilting her head slightly.

"I have heard some rather unpleasant rumours about ZAFT launching an attack to retake Australia. I need some of my best pilots here to defend our ground. Namely, you two" the black-haired man explained in reply. The two pilots nodded and then turned and walked away from their leader. Alastair too walked away from the rowdy mob and returned to the hotel he was staying at. He looked down from the twelfth-storey room and gazed upon the Cherubim docked in the harbour. "Soon…" he whispered to himself.

-Space-

Garret sat in the cockpit of his new Duel Gundam, typing away on the keyboard. "The OS on this thing is pretty impressive. But it's really only effective with a Natural pilot. I'll just rewrite it" he said to himself as he modified the systems. He had spent a few hours with Marcel and Victoria, watching the stars and reminiscing about the past, it had been nice. His hands flew back and forth across the keyboard as he worked, his eyes not even looking where his fingers were going. He then looked over to his GINN, the arm had been repaired and he stared at it sadly. "I'm sorry old buddy, but you won't quite cut it for the fights ahead, I'm worried for your safety" he whispered to the machine. His eyes lowered again and he began typing once more.

"I figured I'd find you here" a voice said from outside the mobile suit. Garret looked up and saw Victoria floating outside the cockpit.

"Oh hey Victoria, what's up?" Garret asked, sliding out of the seat and floating up to meet her.

"You're redoing the OS on that machine right?" she asked and Garret nodded in response. "Did you happen to make a backup copy of the one that was in there to begin with?" she asked. Garret gave her a puzzled look before replying.

"Yeah I did, why?" he asked in reply, curious to know where the questions were leading.

"I just signed up as an extra pilot for the ship, I was wondering if you could put it into another suit so I could get my skills up" Victoria said with a smile. Garret's eyes widened and he floated back in surprise.

"You enlisted as a pilot, but why?!" he exclaimed.

"You, Marcel and the Commander are always out there risking your lives for the ship while I just sit up on the bridge talking to you. I want to do more for the ship. Not to mention, everyone knows that our fighting strength went down significantly with Lucian getting transferred, I want to try and help restore it a bit" Victoria explained in reply.

"You don't even have a suit, what are you going to pilot?" Garret asked.

"Well, I was wondering; if you don't mind of course, could I please practice in your GINN until we get another suit transferred here?" Victoria pleaded. Garret had already expected the answer and he looked over to his old partner.

"That suit means a lot to me Victoria" Garret pointed out and the girl nodded.

"I know, and I promise I'll be super careful. I won't go into actual battle until I get my own suit. I just want to use your GINN to get used to piloting" she explained. Garret sighed and floated back into the Duel. "Is that a yes?" she asked him.

"Give me a minute" Garret said, typing away again. He put a disk into the console, hit several keys, waited and then grabbed the disk when it came back out again. "Come on" he said, floating free of the cockpit again and heading towards the GINN, Victoria following close behind. "So what suit are they transferring you?" Garret asked as they reached the GINN.

"Um, a GuAIZ R I think Captain Phillips said" Victoria replied. Garret opened the cockpit of the GINN and sat down in the seat. He slid the disk he had taken from the Duel into the console and let it load.

"Where exactly are you going to practice? We're in the middle of space after all, unless you want to start with space combat" Garret pointed out.

"Wow, you don't pay much attention when you're with a suit do you? We're nearing a colony where we can disembark, I was hoping you and I could practice with the suits there" Victoria explained.

"I see" Garret said as he type away on the GINN's keyboard. "Sorry to do this to you bud" he said, activating the OS from the Duel. "There, it's done" Garret said, exiting the mobile suit. "I suggesting getting in there now and getting a feel for the controls. If you need me, the comm. link is linked with my Duel" Garret explained, floating away. Victoria climbed in and did as she was instructed.

Garret finished modifying the Duel to his own personal settings just as the Bayonet docked at the colony it was heading for. "Garret" Captain Phillips' voice spoke, his face popping up on Garret's screen.

"Yes sir?" Garret asked in response.

"Victoria has probably already spoken to you but would you be able to use the training ground on the colony here to help her practice in a mobile suit? I would prefer she not get shot down in her first battle" the Captain explained.

"Roger that sir" Garret replied and he asked for his Duel to be freed from its restraints. Once it was free he walked the mobile suit to the catapult. "Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" he called as he was thrown out into a large, grassy area. Behind him he saw the Bayonet docked in a large, cube hangar with the front end pointing out to the plain where he stood now. He walked the suit to the side and waited for Victoria to emerge.

"Do you want to walk out or should we place you on the catapult?" Mr. Farris asked before the girl closed her cockpit.

"Um, can you please place me on the catapult this time?" Victoria asked in response. The mechanic nodded and the GINN was placed on the catapult. "Victoria Mays, GINN, um, mobilise!" she called, trying to match the other pilots with a custom little saying for when she launched. Garret smacked his hand against his forehead as he heard the phrase and sighed. The GINN flew from the ship and landed on the grass, stumbling to keep its balance. Garret walked over and straightened the suit up with his own.

"Get used to just moving around without falling over for now" Garret instructed and the girl acknowledged his instructions. After watching her slowly get used to walking around fluently, he moved her on to her next training. The same pattern followed for two days until the third, the day before the Bayonet would depart from the colony.

On the grass stood the Duel and GINN facing each other, a slight distance apart. Over near the Bayonet stood Marcel in his ZAKU and Aston in his GOUF. "Maybe some of this basic training could do us some good Marcel" Aston pointed out, his GOUF turning to face the green mobile suit.

"Are you sure Commander? Have you recovered properly yet?" Marcel asked worriedly, looking to his superior officer.

"I'm fine Marcel, now get a training sword" Aston ordered. Both the Duel and GINN were armed with simple wooden poles with a metal support shaft running through the centre the approximate size of the GINN's heavy blade and the Duel's beam sabre. The poles were bordered by rubber so that they were unable to cause physical damage to the mobile suit or its pilot. The ZAKU and GOUF were then armed with ones matching their own weapons.

"Are you ready for this Victoria?" Garret asked, looking at the girl from his screen. He had to admit, it was rather odd seeing her in the green pilot uniform.

"Yes" Victoria replied. Garret could tell she was concentrating.

"Begin" they both heard Richard say over the comm. link and Victoria charged forward, her sword held high. Garret smiled and began walking forward. As Victoria swung her weapon down, exactly as he knew she would, he jumped back and then thrust his own forward, striking the thigh of his old mobile suit.

"There goes your leg" Garret laughed. The two moved back to their starting positions and then began again on the captain's signal. This time Victoria stood still for a moment, taking in Garret's stance. He stood relaxed with the tip of his weapon on the ground. "Let's mix things up" Garret said quietly and he rushed forward, taking Victoria by surprise. But the girl remained calm, raising her blade and readying a parry. Garret swung his weapon horizontally and Victoria raised her own weapon in defence, stopping the attack. "Not bad" Garret commented, jumping back. He rushed in again and the two exchanged blows several times. The two leapt back and Garret could hear Victoria panting. He rushed forward one more time and moved his blade to the left. As he did, Victoria moved hers to counter but at the last moment, Garret changed his angle and struck the side of her torso from the right side.

"Dang it, a feint!" Victoria groaned, letting go of the controls.

"You did well, you've improved quite a bit since the other day. Just remember that your GuAIZ will be a primarily ranged suit, don't be overly worried about getting the melee combat perfect straight away" Garret explained and Victoria nodded in reply.

"Speaking of which Garret, that GuAIZ just arrived earlier today, it's in the hangar now" Aston spoke.

"Well, shall we go check out your suit?" Garret asked his friend.

"Yeah, I wanna see it" Victoria replied and the two returned their suits to the ship, followed closely by Marcel and Aston who had also been practice fighting, Aston had easily won. The four mobile suits were all secured into place and the pilots exited them. In a newly filled spot stood a brand new, GuAIZ R. "Wow, it's shiny" Victoria commented and again Garret's head fell to his hand as it had several times in the past days. The girl boarded the suit and began investigating it immediately. Garret uploaded the Purity OS into the new machine for the girl as he removed it from his old GINN and he left Victoria to explore her new machine for the rest of the day.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day the Bayonet departed from the colony and the pilots as well as Victoria and Captain Phillips were all assembled in the briefing room. Aston and Richard stood at the front of the room while the others remained seated. "Alright everyone, we've received new orders" Aston spoke. "We'll be deploying to Earth as part of a joint operation to take back the Australian continent that was previously under our control until it was taken over by Purity forces" he explained. "The mission will consist of three squads mobilizing to each state or territory and trying to retake them all simultaneously. We have been assigned as one of the squads to retake New South Wales" Aston explained.

"But what do we do about a ship? The Bayonet can't operate in the atmosphere" Marcel asked.

"Our team is being assigned the new prototype Ceres, the second ship in the Minerva-class" Richard explained.

"One of the Roman deities, like Minerva" Victoria pointed out.

"Once a fleet of Laurasia-class frigates reach Earth, us pilots will be dropped in the pods of said frigates and the crew will be dropped via shuttles. We will be landing at an outpost base not too far from Sydney, the capital" Aston explained. "Victoria, you will be accompanying us on the battlefield for this, we need all the help we can get" he continued, looking to the girl.

"Yes sir! I won't let you down sir!" Victoria replied enthusiastically.

"I trust all of you will go make the preparations for our descent to Earth, we leave the Bayonet at 1300 hours, you're all dismissed" Richard spoke. The three young pilots all stood, saluted and left the room.

"So we're going to Earth? This'll be my first time" Victoria stated. "You've been there before right Garret? What's it like?" she asked the blonde boy.

"Yeah I've been there, I was born there. It's pretty nice, as long as you're not in a warzone" Garret replied. "Are you going to be ok fighting in the atmosphere? You've only had practice out here in space" Garret pointed out.

"I should be fine, after all you two and the Commander will protect me right?" she asked, poking her tongue out a little.

"You can't rely on us all the time Victoria, you'll get complacent" Marcel said in reply. The girl pouted and stared at him.

"It was just a joke. Of course I'll be fine" she said and the three walked through the corridors in silence until they reached their rooms and split off. Garret entered his room and began packing his things into a single suitcase that would fit in the cockpit of his mobile suit. He packed his spare uniform, his casual clothes and various other personal items.

"We've gotta be at our suits at one, that's only an hour away... better hurry up" Garret said to himself, closing his suitcase. He floated down to the locker rooms and changed into his pilot suit. In the hangar he found Marcel already there. "Wow, you didn't screw around huh?" Garret remarked, floating to his Duel.

"Yeah. I wanted to do some last minute checks on my suit before we head off to Earth. Don't exactly want it overheating and going boom in the drop capsule during re-entry" Marcel replied.

"True, I should probably do the same" Garret said, climbing into the cockpit of the Gundam. He slipped his suitcase behind the seat and extended the keyboard. "Victoria not here yet?" he asked Marcel who he knew would be lingering around the Duel.

"Not yet. You know what that girl's like, she takes forever to get ready" Marcel laughed.

"Shut it Marcel" Victoria said, floating past the boy towards her GuAIZ. Garret smiled in the cockpit as he typed away. It was good to have actual friends to fight alongside, better than just other crewmembers he thought. At least he knew he could always rely on his friends. The three pilots worked on their mobile suits for the remainder of their wait until the Laurasia-class fleet arrived.

"Garret! Marcel! Victoria!" Aston's voice called from the floor of the hangar. The three pilots all emerged from their suits and floated down to the commander, assembling in a line. "The fleet has now arrived, we need to fly our suits over to the frigates and ready ourselves in the drop pods, can you all do that?" Aston asked. The three nodded and he waved his hand to signal them to get into their mobile suits. The four pilots all boarded their machines and then launched out into space. They proceeded to the closest ship and were docked into the drop pods. "We all secured?" Aston asked and the others all replied with a yes.

"Now we just get to sit back and relax" Garret said, releasing the controls for his suit. "Victoria, make sure you turn on the AC for your suit once we hit the atmosphere" Garret warned.

"I know, I'm sure I won't forget" Victoria replied, typing away on her keyboard. "Commander, what other squads will be fighting with us for this mission?" she asked.

"Well, the first is the Lions Team, there are six pilots in that group. I think I'll keep the other team a secret, you'll all be pleasantly surprised" Aston replied, a faint smile on his lips.

"_Attention Falcon Team, forty-five seconds until drop. I repeat, forty-five seconds until drop_" a voice spoke over the radios of the four mobile suits. The four pilots all readied themselves and the seconds passed quickly until the pod was launched towards Earth. The four pilots engaged their air conditioners as the pod began to quickly heat up during re-entry.

"Do we really have a chance at taking back an entire continent sir?" Marcel asked Aston. "I mean, Purity could have an entire army of Gundams down on Earth" he continued.

"We have no choice but to try. We can't exactly sit back and let those terrorists take over Earth" Aston replied.

"I thought they're objective was to eliminate us Coordinators not take over Earth" Garret pointed out.

"That was also the goal of Blue Cosmos and LOGOS, did they not also try to take control of large sections of Earth? They wormed their way into Earth's governments and tried to manipulate them" Aston explained in reply.

"I suppose you're right" Garret agreed.

"Ok everyone, we're here. Let's deploy" Aston ordered and the four doors of the pod fell open. The four suits slid out and deployed parachutes so they fell slightly slower.

-Earth-

They landed on the ground as they saw two more pods heading for them. "Everyone move, give them room!" Aston ordered. The GOUF and ZAKU ran to the right while the Duel and GuAIZ headed left. Deploying from the pods they saw, one ZAKU, a CGUE, two GuAIZ Rs and two DINNs.

"I'm guessing that's the Lions Team" Victoria stated, watching them all land.

"One would assume so" Garret said. "That only accounts for two squads though, where is the third one that should be helping us out?" Garret asked, looking around the area for anymore pods.

"Garret, Victoria! The Commander said we have to get to the base!" Marcel called, running over in his ZAKU. Garret and Victoria acknowledged the instructions and the three followed the white GOUF running towards a small base in the distance. Upon arrival, the four pilots all entered a hangar where they saw their ship, the Ceres. It looked identical to the original Minerva except the majority of the body was a pale blue and the parts of the Minerva which were red were coloured white. The four pilots disembarked their suits and allowed for them to be loaded onto the ship while they headed for the base's briefing room.

"Dammit, don't we even get to sit down for a break?" Garret muttered as they walked.

"Our operation is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so no" Commander Falcon replied. The four of them arrived at the briefing room where five reds and a white soldier were all waiting.

"Commander Aston Falcon, good to finally meet you" the white-clad soldier said, shaking hands with Aston. The man was tall and well-muscled with a balding head of grey hair. He had several scars on his face, clearly from earlier battles.

"Commander Gerald Lions" Aston replied.

"This is my squad" Gerald said, introducing each pilot. The pilot of the ZAKU was Stephan Louise, a man in his early twenties with short, brown hair. The first GuAIZ pilot was Terrance Kingston, an older man is his forties with grey hair like his commander. He wore a black eye patch over his right eye, an injury from the first war. The second GuAIZ pilot was Raquel Queen, a woman about the same age as Aston with a black bowl cut. One of the DINN pilots was Victor Fiorelli, a young man no older than 18 with short, blonde hair. The final pilot of the squad was Roberto Fiorelli, Victor's twin brother.

"A pleasure to meet all of you, these are my soldiers. Garret Kross, Marcel North and Victoria Mays" Aston said in reply.

"Really, they've got a green fighting with them? This ain't no fight for newbies" Stephan remarked.

"Hey quiet you uptight asshole, she could kick your ass any day!" Marcel snapped, raising his finger to the other pilot.

"Marcel, cut it out! Gerald, I'd appreciate it if your pilot refrains from any such comments in the future" Aston ordered, giving the other commander a threatening look.

"Listen to the man Stephen, we're fighting a war against Purity here, not each other. Mind you Aston, those pilots of yours better know how to follow orders out there, one screw-up and we're all dead" Commander Lions replied. Gerald was a very strict commander, he expected every order he gave to be followed without a moment's hesitation. He often had a habit of ordering his superiors around on the battlefield.

"I'm sure they'll do fine, make sure yours do the same" Aston warned the man.

"They won't disappoint. Now where the hell is that other commander, he's late!" Gerald roared, getting impatient.

"I'm not late you ear-splitting gorilla, I'm right on time" a voice replied from the door. A white haired young man wearing a uniform of the same colour walked into the room followed by a blonde young man about the same age in a black uniform, a slightly younger young woman with purple hair, also a red and a girl with longer reddish hair in a green uniform.

"W...what did you...?!" Gerald went to burst out when the third commander interrupted.

"Commander Yzak Joule, pilot of the GAT-X102 Duel. This is my squad" the white haired young man said.

"I'm Dearka Elsman, pilot of the GAT-X103 Buster Gundam" the blonde pilot said with a small salute. "Interesting looking bunch we've got here…" he commented, looking around at the gathered soldiers.

"Lunamaria Hawke, pilot of the ZGMF-X56S Impulse Gundam" the girl with the shorter hair stated.

"Meyrin Hawke, I pilot a ZAKU" the other girl said, looking around and noticing that there was only one other green uniformed pilot in the room.

"Alright everyone, sit down" Aston said as he, Yzak and Gerald moved to the front of the room. The pilots all obeyed the commander, sitting in the seats set in the room. "Now, let's get this started shall we?" Aston asked, looking to each commander as they nodded. "Our main objective here is to take back the capital city of this state, Sydney, as quickly as possible. Sources within the city have informed us that the Purity forces there have a base on the outskirts of the city where all of their mobile suits and heavy weaponry are kept" Aston explained, bringing up a map on the screen behind him.

"My team and the Falcon Team will be deployed there" Yzak stated, pointing to the part of the map where the base was located. "In the meantime, the Lions Team will be deployed into the city to take out any internal defences they may have deployed. Our sources tell us that inside the city Purity have deployed tanks and heavy guns" he explained.

"It is imperative that we reduce as many civilian casualties and structural damage as possible. Try to destroy defences before they have time to mobilise" Gerald explained. "This means that you must all follow every goddamn order you're given out there!" he said loudly.

"My own team and the Joule Team are to enter the base and destroy all Purity mobile suits as quickly as possible, preferably before they can fight back" Aston explained. "Any questions?" he asked, looking between the soldiers.

"Are the two little greens gonna be able to cut it on the battlefield?" Stephan remarked, looking at Victoria and Meyrin.

"Another comment like that and I'm putting you in solitary for a day" Gerald warned his soldier, a threatening look in his eyes.

"You're all dismissed, be sure to practice atmospheric combat before tomorrow. We move out at 0600" Aston informed them. All of the soldiers rose; saluted and left the room. The members of the Falcon Team entered the hangar where the Ceres was being held and boarded the ship.


	7. Chapter 7

"Man, that Lions Team guy was such an ass!" Marcel said, slamming his fist against the wall of the cafeteria.

"Calm down Marcel, don't let him get to you" Garret said, picking up a slice of beef with his fork.

"I just wanna smack him one" Marcel groaned, sitting down. "Hey Victoria, wanna go do some training to get you used to moving under gravity?" he asked the girl sitting across from Garret and himself.

"Sure, do you want to come Garret?" she asked the other young man.

"Sure, I haven't used a suit in gravity for a while" Garret replied. The three all boarded their mobile suits and deployed out on the airstrip of the base. Shortly after they headed out, a ZAKU, DINN and GuAIZ all joined them.

"So, that's the Duel that you stole huh?" the ZAKU pilot asked, approaching Garret.

"Stephan, correct?" Garret asked in reply, a tone of warning in his voice.

"Yeah that's right. So which one of you is the green?" Stephan asked, turning to face Marcel and Victoria.

"Seriously, you really wanna start this crap again?" Marcel asked, reaching for his training tomahawk.

"The GuAIZ R pilot then" Stephan said with a cocky grin, approaching Victoria.

"Stephan, do you really wanna do this? You heard what Commander Lions said!" the pilot of the DINN, Roberto warned.

"I dunno Roberto, that ZAKU pilot said that their little green could beat Stephan any day, I'm curious to see whether or not it's true" the GuAIZ pilot, Raquel commented.

"You game green?" Stephan taunted.

"My name is Victoria Mays, not 'green'. Yeah, I'll fight you" Victoria replied, readying her mock beam sabre.

"Victoria, are you sure this is a good idea?" Garret asked, looking over towards the girl.

"It's fine Garret, I'm not going to let this guy push me around just because I wear a green uniform" Victoria replied. All of the other pilots except for Stephan and Victoria moved away, watching wearily. Stephan pulled out his mock tomahawk and charged at Victoria. The girl raised her shield and blocked the vertical strike. She thrust back with her sabre, but the ZAKU leaned slightly to the side before stepping back.

"Come on, fight me" Stephan taunted, but Victoria wouldn't fall for it. She stood still, her weapon and shield ready. Stephan moved forward and tried a low sweep on Victoria's legs but the girl thrust her sabre down through one of the gaps in tomahawk, holding it to the ground. She quickly followed it up by slamming her shield into the ZAKU's head, causing Stephan to stagger and fall over. She pulled her beam sabre from the ground and pointed it down at Stephan's cockpit. "What the hell?!" Stephan roared. Victoria retracted her weapon and walked away, followed by Garret and Marcel.

"Dude, you got owned!" Roberto laughed, helping his comrade up.

"Shut up, I took it easy on her… stupid mistake I won't make again" Stephan grumbled.

The next morning came quickly and the four Falcon Team pilots boarded their machines. "Victoria, are you nervous?" Aston asked the girl as his GOUF was placed on the catapult.

"A little, yeah" the girl replied.

"Good, I'd be worried if you weren't. Nerves keep you on your toes; just don't let them take over. The Minerva and Ceres flew side-by-side, readying their mobile suit teams.

"Commander Falcon, we're reaching the Purity base, you're clear for launch now" Karl, the young man taking Victoria's job in the CIC stated.

"Roger that, Aston Falcon, GOUF Ignited, engage!" the Commander called out and his GOUF shot out from the Ceres' catapult.

"Load the ZAKU onto the catapult, Marcel, prepare to launch" Kyle's voice spoke through the hangar. Marcel's ZAKU was loaded onto the catapult and Marcel typed away on his keyboard. "Equip the Gunner Wizard" Kyle said. The pack was put on and the ZAKU crouched down slightly.

"This is Marcel North, Gunner ZAKU Warrior, bring it on!" the pilot called and he shot off to follow Aston.

"Now load the GuAIZ R, Victoria, prepare to launch" Kyle instructed. The GuAIZ was placed on the catapult and took up a launch position.

"Victoria Mays, GuAIZ R, mobilise!" the girl called as she was launched into the air.

"Now the Duel" Kyle called as the Gundam was placed onto the catapult.

"Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" Garret called and he joined his companions. He landed on the dirt and ran after his comrades. He looked back and saw the Buster, Impulse and a red ZAKU Gunner launch from the Minerva. The seven mobile suits all grouped together and headed for the base that they could see.

"Marcel, Meyrin, Dearka, fire off some long range attacks while myself and Lunamaria rush in. Garret, Victoria, cover me and Luna" Aston ordered and he activated his wing pack, soaring into the sky. The Force Impulse joined him and together they flew towards the base. Marcel and Meyrin fired off their energy cannons, sending red and white beams smashing through two large warehouses and Dearka's yellow beam struck another.

"Alright, there goes one of 'em!" Dearka called triumphantly. Three huge explosions erupted in the base as Garret and Victoria charged forward. From nowhere, they were joined by a second Duel; instinctively Garret drew his rifle and aimed it at the mobile suit.

"It's me" Yzak's voice spoke. "Nice reactions though" he commented. After ZAFT reproduced the Duel and Buster like Purity had, Yzak and Dearka were more than happy to accept their old Gundams back, even if they were slightly out-dated. The two Gundams and the GuAIZ moved in close as the base began deploying its mobile suits.

"Yzak, there's a Forbidden and Calamity headed towards you three" Aston's voice spoke to the other Commander. Yzak raised the gun on the shoulder of his assault shroud and aimed it at the two Gundams coming towards them. As he fired the weapon, the Forbidden stepped in front of its partner and raised its shields.

"I'll take the Forbidden, you two take the Calamity. Dearka, get over here!" Yzak ordered.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it" the Buster pilot spoke, raising both of his guns. Garret and Victoria moved to the side slightly as they headed for the Calamity.

"Victoria, watch out, the Calamity excels at ranged attacks!" Garret warned his friend and the two spread out. The blue Gundam fired its shoulder cannons at Garret who raised his shield in response, blocking the attack. Victoria charged forward, engaging the beam sabre in her shield.

"Filthy Coordinator, I'll kill you!" an older man's voice called from the Calamity as he took aim with his bazooka. He fired a shot at Victoria who was pushed back even though she blocked the attack with her shield. Garret ran forward, firing off his rifle to draw the enemy's attention. The Calamity pulled its arms back and readied its Scylla cannon, aimed straight for the stunned GuAIZ. Garret heard Victoria scream as the weapon readied to fire.

"You… bastard!" Garret roared. He threw his gun aside and pulled one of his beam sabres out, throwing it like a javelin straight into the chest cannon of the Calamity. The Gundam went rigid and then exploded violently as it began to fall over. He ran over to the GuAIZ R and put his hand on its shoulder. "Victoria! Are you ok?!" he called.

"Y…yeah I'm fine" she stuttered, holding back tears. Behind them, they heard another explosion as the Forbidden was destroyed by Yzak and Dearka.

"Wow, no sweat at all" Dearka commented, watching the explosion. In the sky above the base they could see the GOUF and Impulse engaging with a black and red mobile suit.

"Commander Joule, what mobile suit is that?" Garret asked, pointing to the enemy one with his mobile suit.

"The GAT-X370 Raider, the third Gundam to go with the Forbidden and Raider" Yzak replied as he joined the other two pilots.

"Lunamaria, distract it!" Aston called as he dodged a strike from the Raider's Mjollnir spherical breaker.

"Yes sir!" Lunamaria responded and she fired off several rounds from her beam rifle. The Raider transformed into its mobile armour form and sped towards the Impulse, firing off shots from the cannon in its head. Lunamaria danced around the shots as Aston positioned himself above the mobile armour. He held out his shield arm and a cable shot out from the GOUF's wrist, piercing the left wing of the black and red suit. The Raider transformed again and started to fall as Aston flew towards it with his sword out.

"Take this!" Aston roared as he soared down past the Gundam, slicing straight through the cockpit and skidding across the ground. He turned and watched the Gundam explode in mid-air before sheathing his sword in his shield. "Purity base confirmed destroyed. Richard, what's the status of the Lions Team?" the Commander asked.

"They've progressed into the centre of the city, Purity is putting up a strong fight, they have mobile suits in the city too" Captain Phillips replied.

"Right, we'll head there now and provide assistance" Aston said in reply. "Is that ok with you Yzak?" he asked the other commander.

"Yeah, let's go" Yzak replied and the mobile suit team began running for the city itself. The two ships followed, ready to fire on enemy troops that got too close. The two ZAKUs and the Buster both returned to the ship and stood at the ends of the catapults, secured to the ships themselves. The GOUF and Impulse flew through the air, sweeping their rifles across the city streets. The two Duels and the GuAIZ R ran through the streets themselves with their guns ready until they reached the centre of the city.

The two teams found the Lions Team engaged with a small squad of mass-produced mobile suits, mostly consisting of Dagger Ls and ZAKUs. The two DINNS of the Lions Team flew over the battlefield, sending a hail of bullets down into the enemy lines. Due to the lack of room in the battle area, the Falcon and Joule teams stood back, prepared to leap into the battle should one of the Lions Team fall. Aston and Lunamaria joined the two DINNs, flying over the battlefield, firing down on the Purity forces. The ZAFT pilots eventually broke through and destroyed all of the mobile suits Purity had deployed and they stood around the streets, doing a final sweep for any lingering enemies.

"That appears to be all of them" Aston stated, landing in a large paved area.

"Ha. That was pathetic, they really should defend their cities better!" Gerald laughed loudly. The Lions Team were cheering in victory as they stood throughout Sydney, raising their guns to the sky.

"Something seems off. Purity have been fighting with so much aggression until now, why leave such an important area so weakly defended like this…?" Garret muttered, his hands still gripping the controls of his suit.

"Aston! We're picking up an energy source approaching at high speed!" Richard yelled from the Ceres and the GOUF instantly perked its head up.

"What is it?" Aston asked, but Richard didn't have to answer the question, he saw the object within seconds. The mobile suit came to a halt between two buildings, it's black and red body shone in the sun light as it extended its black wings.

"ZGMF-X10A… it's the Freedom!" Kyle called as the data appeared on his screen. Where the Freedom had been white, this mobile suit was black and the blue sections had been recoloured in a blood red.

"Wrong… this, is the Tyranny Gundam" a cold voice spoke back in return. A video link appeared on the screens of all the mobile suits and ships, showing the pilot of the Gundam. He seemed thin with blonde hair that hung at his shoulders, a long piece of his fringe hanging down past his chin. His eyes were covered by a white visor. The grey screen of the visor prevented anyone from seeing the young man's eyes. A pale scar ran down over the left side of his lip. "Coordinators, you will be eliminated" the pilot spoke and the video disappeared.

"Cocky bastard!" Gerald yelled, charging forward in his CGUE. The Tyranny unsheathed its beam sabre and flew towards the white mobile suit at blinding speed.

"Commander!" Stephan called, holding out the hand of his ZAKU, as if wanting to pull the man back. But it was too late. The Tyranny drove its beam sabre through the cockpit of the CGUE, then grabbed it by the head and tossed it aside into a building as it exploded violently. The building collapsed, causing the Gundam to ascend into the air, looking down on the ZAFT pilots.

"Such speed…" Garret whispered, astounded.

"Everyone, fall back!" Aston called, flying his GOUF towards the Ceres. The Joule and Falcon teams began falling back to their respective ships while the Lions team just headed for whichever one was closer.

"You bastard, I'll avenge the Commander!" Stephen roared, firing his beam rifle at the black and red suit.

"Dammit Stephen, fall back!" Terrance called, turning his GuAIZ R around. Stephan roared as he sent a hail of beam shots flying towards the Tyranny. The Gundam flew forward, dodging the shots and pulling out its beam rifle with its free hand. The Gundam reached the ZAKU and rammed the point of its shield into the ZAKU's armpit, flinging its gun away. The pilot then placed the beam rifle against the cockpit of the green suit and pulled the trigger. He flung the ZAKU away on with the shield and watched as it exploded before turning his attention to the two retreating ships.

"Hmm, seems they got away" he said quietly, lowering his gun. "Two Minerva-class ships escaped. They have four Gundams on board consisting of two Duels, a Buster and an Impulse" he spoke into his communicator.

"It doesn't matter; you defended the city… mostly. Allen and Hilde have kept our hold in Perth but unfortunately the rest have fallen to ZAFT. We must take them back" a voice spoke back to him. "You did well Xero" the voice commented.


	8. Chapter 8

Garret sat on the lounge in the Ceres' locker room, panting as he looked at the other soldiers around him. Victoria, Commander Falcon, Marcel, Terrance and Raquel. "That idiot… if he hadn't fired back he would've lived" Terrance said angrily, dropping his red helmet on the floor.

"He was only trying to avenge the Commander, you know what those two were like" Raquel commented.

"We should be thanking Stephan actually. He drew the fire of that mobile suit away from us, allowing us to retreat. If it wasn't for him, we'd probably all be dead… or most of us anyway" Aston explained. Terrance glared at the young commander with his single eye and then sighed, the man was right. "You two will be transferred back to your ship once we arrive back at base, for now just rest" Aston said before leaving the room.

"Are you ok?" Raquel asked, looking to Victoria.

"Well that was my first real battle, so I'm a little shaken, but I'm alright" Victoria replied.

"You moved pretty well out there for your first time, I'm really impressed" Garret commented, placing a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"Yeah, you're pretty good at handling that GuAIZ" Marcel said with a smile.

"I had a good teacher" Victoria replied, poking her tongue out at Garret.

"Are both of you alright, you just lost a teammate and your commander" Garret asked, looking at Raquel and Terrance.

"I'll be ok, I wasn't particularly close to either of them" Raquel sighed. "Although it's still sad" she continued.

"This isn't the first comrade I've lost to the fight…" Terrace stated.

"I see, well, I'll take my leave for now" Garret said and he left the room, closely followed by Victoria and Marcel. "Let's head to the bridge and see what's going on" Garret told his two comrades and the three made their way up.

"So then, what are our orders Richard?" Aston asked, taking a seat as the three pilots entered.

"Well apparently the only attacks to fail were this one and the one on Perth in Western Australia, but apparently they encountered the ship we saw above the Earth, the Archangel-class" Captain Phillips explained.

"Great confidence booster…" Marcel muttered, looking at the floor.

"Don't feel too bad Marcel, none of us were expecting a replica of the Freedom to show up, it caught us by surprise" Aston explained. "So Richard, our orders?" he asked.

"For now were to return to base and await further instructions" Captain Phillips explained.

"I see, the relaxation should be nice… if it's really possible to relax in a war. Take us back then" Aston ordered, taking a seat. "Victoria, I saw that incident with the Calamity, how are you holding up?" the commander asked.

"I'm ok sir, just a little shaken" Victoria said in reply.

"Just take a little break; we all went through something like that at some point. Right Garret?" Aston asked, looking to the young man.

"Yeah" was all Garret said in reply.

"It's happened to you?" Victoria asked, looking to her friend. Garret simply nodded.

"I never knew that either, what happened?" Marcel asked, also looking at Garret.

"I'll tell you later" Garret said.

"You're all dismissed for now, take some time to relax" Aston said, motioning for the door of the bridge. The three pilots all headed to the outside deck and stood at the railings.

"So Garret, tell us about that experience of yours" Marcel said, leaning his back against the railings.

"It wasn't long after I joined ZAFT, one of the first missions I was sent on before we got assigned to the Bayonet for the first time…" Garret spoke and he let his memories take over as he spoke.

-Space, CE74-

The GINN flew through space, its machine gun drawn; the enemy was an unknown group. Garret watched the screen through his green helmet, searching for any signs of movement. He swept his gun around, his eyes flitting across his screens. A video link appeared on his screen and a red helmet appeared, a set of cool, blue eyes looked at him through it. "Garret, calm down" the person spoke, his voice calm and reassuring. "The enemy is just a few mass-produced suits, nothing to worry about. Besides, I'm here" the young man said with a grin.

"R…right, sorry Cecil" Garret replied, trying to calm himself. Cecil was a young man in his twenties who piloted a GuAIZ R. He was a mentor of sorts to Garret and a very calm person when in battle or under pressure. The two flew side-by-side towards the wreckage of an Agamemnon-class warship that they had been asked to investigate.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I can't see any enemies around here" Cecil spoke, glancing around the area. "The Commander said that there was an unknown group patrolling around this ship right?" he asked Garret for reassurance.

"That's what he said" Garret replied quietly. The two mobile suits floated over to the wreckage and began slowly pulling parts of the debris away. Garret pulled away a large section of the hull and peered inside, he saw nothing in particular as he scanned the GINN's eye across the gap.

"Garret, get back!" Cecil yelled and Garret quickly pulled back on the controls. He moved back just in time as a shot flew in front of him. He turned his head and saw two standard GuAIZs, three Strike Daggers and two M1 Astrays approaching. "Come on, let's take these guys out!" Cecil said, pulling out his beam rifle and engaging the beam sabre in his shield. Garret sat back, launching barrages of bullets at the enemy squad. Cecil swiftly cut through two of the Strike Daggers as the third one approached with its sabre. The mobile suit swung its weapon horizontally but Cecil flew backwards, flicked out the two railguns on his waist and fired two rounds through the lower torso of the suit. Cecil turned and saw Garret being surrounded by the remaining four mobile suits. "Garret!" He called, flying towards his friend.

Garret pulled out his sword and drove it through one of the GuAIZs and spun around to quickly block an attack from the beam sabre of an M1. He exchanged several strikes with the Astray while the second GuAIZ snuck up on the GINN. It engaged the beam claws in its shield and prepared them for a strike on the GINN. The alarms in Garret's suit went off and he turned around, but it was too late. There was nothing he could do. At that moment, Garret released the controls and closed his eyes, waiting for the pain and then the silence that would follow. His eyes were flicked open when the GuAIZ before him exploded violently. Garret turned and saw Cecil with his railguns engaged turning on the two Astrays that were still around the GINN. The guns fired and took out one of the suits. Cecil flew forward at the last suit and drove his sabre through the cockpit, finishing it off.

"You ok there Garret?" Cecil asked, turning to the boy.

"Y…yeah, thanks" Garret replied.

-Earth, CE75-

"Wow, that Cecil guy sounded like one hell of a pilot" Marcel commented when Garret stopped.

"Yeah, he was the best I knew" Garret said, the sadness in his voice evident.

"'Was'? Did something happen to him?" Victoria asked.

"He was killed during a mission not long after that. His GuAIZ was swarmed by eight Slash ZAKU Phantoms and another mobile suit…" Garret explained.

"Oh. I'm so sorry" Victoria said sadly, placing her hand on Garret's shoulder.

"It's fine, I'm ok with it all now. He died protecting the ones he cared about; he wouldn't have had it any other way" Garret explained, staring out at the landscape before the ship.

"That group you said you were fighting… it was Purity right?" Marcel asked. Garret nodded in reply. "Same ones that got Cecil?" he asked. Again Garret simply nodded. "I guess that's why you really hate these guys huh?" he continued.

"Something like that…" Garret said quietly, toying with a plain, silver ring on his finger. "Do you really think… that we can win this war?" Garret asked, staring out over the terrain as it flew under the ship.

"Why ask that now?" Marcel replied, looking at his friend.

"You saw the power of that mobile suit in Sydney, what if Purity has an army of those things? Would we have a chance?" Garret asked; a distant look in his eyes.

"It's not like it's a completely new mobile suit, it's just a recoloured version of the Freedom Gundam. The thing was originally built by ZAFT, if we can get the schematics and find a weakness we can beat the thing" Marcel explained.

"But the Freedom also has far better fighting ability than any of our mobile suits, you two use common mass-produced suits and I use a replica of a Gundam that the original Freedom defeated numerous times with ease" Garret pointed out.

"Man, you're such a downer. You have to remember though; the pilot of the original Freedom was Kira Yamato. This guy is with Purity, meaning he's most likely a Natural. He caught us by surprise back there, but next time we'll be ready. We'll take him down" Marcel said, clenching his fist.

"Marcel's right, as long as we all stick together we can beat this guy" Victoria agreed, smiling at Garret.

"I guess you're right. Next time… we'll shoot that guy down" Garret said, a serious expression emerging on his face. The Ceres and Minerva arrived at the base and were docked in two separate hangars. The pilots of the Lions Team disembarked and returned to their own ship while the Joule and Falcon teams remained behind. "What do we do now?" Garret asked his comrades, looking around at the hangar.

"I think we just remain on the ship, I'd say Commander Falcon and Commander Joule are probably meeting with base command or something in regards to our next mission" Marcel replied, sitting on the ground. "I have a question Victoria, that was your first battle and your only other experience in that suit was the few training sessions with Garret when we were docked on that colony... how the hell did you get so good?" the young pilot asked, looking up at his friend.

"Mr. Farris got an old mobile suit simulator out of the storage room for me and I've been practicing on it with any spare time I've had" Victoria explained in reply.

"That, and I really think you're just a natural at this piloting stuff" Garret put in, smiling at the girl.

"Well regardless of how it happened, it's a good thing. You moved well out there" Marcel complimented.

"Thanks Marcel" Victoria said with a large smile. The three sat idly talking until they finally headed inside for their evening meal. They entered the cafeteria and sat down with several other crew members, talking as they ate.

"Apparently the Purity forces near Perth are really putting up a fight against the ZAFT forces over there. I saw a report saying that almost sixty-five percent of our forces there have been badly damaged or destroyed. We rushed in without a plan... and now we're paying for it" one of the bridge crew with them explained. "I heard that's where Lucian was sent after he left the Bayonet back in space" the young man continued.

"What?! Lucian is over in Perth?!" Marcel exclaimed, rising to his feet and slamming his hands on the table. "If that's where the Purity forces are most aggressive, he could be in danger! Or worse..." he said loudly, his eyes scanning the room frantically as if searching for something.

"Marcel, calm down. I'm sure Lucian is fine" Garret said, looking up at his friend. He looked into the brown-haired boy's eyes, but all he could see was concern. He knew that the two had grown up together and that they had been close friends. He knew what Marcel was going through, he had felt the same way when he had heard about what Cecil had been sent to face a year ago.

"I have to see the Commander, we have to go to Perth!" Marcel exclaimed, running from the room. The crew member who had mentioned Lucian looked between Garret and Victoria.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked.

"No, it's fine. I'll go talk to him" Garret said in reply and he followed where Marcel had gone. "I'd guess he's on his way to the bridge" he sighed, increasing his walking speed slightly. He reached the bridge and found Marcel arguing with Captain Phillips. "Oh god, here we go..." he muttered to himself.

"God dammit Marcel! We can't just leave our post just to go after one person!" Richard roared, getting to his feet.

"It's not 'just one person', its Lucian! He's one of us!" Marcel said loudly.

"I know its Lucian, and I'd be happy to know that he's safe and unhurt but we can't leave here and head to Perth unless we're ordered to!" Richard said, clenching his fists.

"Marcel! Come on, stop it! I know how you feel but the Captain is right" Garret said, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"But Garret... its Lucian..." Marcel said quietly, his eyes lowering to the floor.

"I know Marcel, I know..." Garret said.

"How about I solve this little problem shall I?" a voice asked from behind the three soldiers. They all turned around and saw that Aston had arrived on the bridge. "I have our newest orders" he explained, sitting in his usual spot behind the Captain. Marcel's eyes raised and he looked at the red-haired young commander.

"What would they be Aston?" Richard asked, sitting in his seat.

"Our newest orders are to head to Perth immediately and back up our remaining forces. The Joule Team will also be assisting us" Aston explained. "Also, to ease your concerns Marcel, Lucian is alive and fighting. He's been placed in charge of one of the teams there that lost their Commander" he continued.

"Thank you sir" Marcel said quietly and he left the bridge. Aston's eyes shifted to Garret next.

"For the time being, I would like both you and Victoria to leave the ship and travel on the ground in your mobile suits. We've been informed that there is a small force heading towards the base from the north-west. Along with the Impulse from the Minerva, you will eliminate it and then rendezvous with the ships before we reach Perth" the Commander explained.

"Yes sir!" Garret responded, raising his hand in a salute.

"Dismissed, standby in your mobile suit for deployment" Aston said and Garret ran for the elevator. He returned to the cafeteria and found Victoria still there, waiting for him.

"Victoria come on, we gotta go!" Garret called, not entering the cafeteria before running for the hangar, the girl soon close behind him. He explained their orders to the girl as they ran until they reached the locker rooms. The two split off, changed into their pilot suits and met up in the hangar. They boarded their mobile suits and checked over the systems. "Are you going to be ok Victoria, you haven't really had much of a rest from the last battle" Garret asked, the concern obvious in his voice.

"I'll be fine Garret" Victoria replied, her tone warning the Duel pilot not to question her any further. They felt the ship begin flying again and both knew that they would be asked to deploy soon. Their time came soon enough.


	9. Chapter 9

"Garret, Victoria, it's time for you both to head out" Aston spoke into their mobile suits. The two acknowledged the order and the Duel was placed onto the ship's catapult.

"All systems green, Duel, you're clear for take-off" Kyle spoke to Garret.

"Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" Garret called and his Gundam was flung out onto the arid ground.

"Victoria Mays, GuAIZ R, mobilise!" the female pilot called out and she joined her comrade.

"The Duel and GuAIZ huh? The blonde guy and the girl in the green uniform right?" a female voice spoke over both of their communicators. The two mobile suits turned around and saw the Force Impulse land close behind them. "I'm Lunamaria Hawke, it's nice to meet both of you" the girl introduced herself, bringing up a video link with the other two pilots.

"I'm Garret Kross, nice to meet you too" Garret replied.

"My name is Victoria Mays" the other female pilot said.

"We better get going, the quicker we take out that enemy squad and get back to the ships the better" Lunamaria explained, walking in the direction they had to go. "Garret, make sure to keep your phase shift off along with any unnecessary systems to conserve power" Lunamaria pointed out.

"Right, I'll do that" Garret replied, quickly inputting several commands to his suit. The three travelled in a triangular formation with the Impulse at the head of the group. "Do you know the suits in the group we're intercepting?" Garret asked Lunamaria, hoping they weren't going in blind.

"I don't know the exact suits they're using but Commander Joule said there were eight of them. We should be fine though, it seems to only be an infiltration team" Lunamaria explained.

"Something other than Gundams would be an appreciated change of pace" Garret sighed, relaxing a little in his seat. "Victoria; is your GuAIZ all good?" he asked his friend.

"Everything seems fine, no problems" she said in reply, walking a little faster to stay in line with Garret. The three travelled at a steady pace for an hour or so before the Purity squad came into view across the hilly terrain.

"Two BABIs, two Murasames, a GOUF and three GAZuOOTs" Lunamaria informed the others as she saw the enemy. "Garret, engage phase shift now, we'll try and take some of them down from a distance now!" she instructed, flicking the switch on her console that engaged her phase shift armour. Garret did the same and the three mobile suits all lined up and raised their guns. The three beam rifles as well as Victoria's two railguns all fired at the enemy squad. But the enemy had expected the attack. The BABIs and Murasames all transformed and headed into the air along with the GOUF while the GAZuOOTs moved into cover behind large hills. Lunamaria soared into the air and swiftly cut through one of the Murasames with her beam sabre.

"Victoria, let's take the ones on the ground!" Garret called, running for the scattered hills the ZuOOTs had hidden behind. He scaled it and looked to the other side but was forced to leap back as two large beams shot up in front of him. As he landed on the hill from boosting backwards, the foot of his Duel sunk into the soft terrain and caused the mobile suit to fall, tumbling down to the ground.

"Garret!" Victoria screamed running for him as the three GAZuOOTs rounded the hills and advanced on the fallen Gundam. She did a short boost into the air and fired her three guns down through one of the tank-like mobile suits, destroying it. The second one raised its machine gun hands and launched a hail of bullets towards the GuAIZ. Victoria raised her shield and blocked the shots as she landed on the ground again. She leapt to the side as the third GAZuOOT fired its shoulder cannons at her. The girl danced around various attacks, slowly moving towards the suits as Garret struggled to get his mobile suit to stand on the soft, wet ground. She engaged the beam sabre in her shield and drove it through the cockpit of the second suit. She lingered on the spot for a second until she was thrown back when the GAZuOOT exploded. Her GuAIZ slammed into the ground and her eyes widened when she saw the last ZuOOT raising its missiles.

"Don't even try it!" Garret roared, boosting forward and cleaving through the waist of the tank-like suit with his beam sabre as he flew past. The Duel straightened up as it stopped and the suit exploded behind him. Victoria got to her feet and ran over to the Gundam then followed Garret's gaze to Lunamaria. She had taken down the two BABIs and was now only dealing with the last one of the Murasames and the GOUF. When they noticed the GAZuOOTs had been destroyed, the GOUF broke off from the Murasames and engaged the Duel and GuAIZ R. "Victoria, aim for its flight pack!" Garret called, raising his rifle and firing several shots. The GuAIZ followed suit and eventually one of Garret's shots pierced the wing of the flight pack, causing the GOUF to land. "Now keep it at a range, the GOUF is primarily a close range suit" Garret instructed, slowly walking backwards, firing at the blue mobile suit.

"Right!" Victoria called and she leapt into the air and flicked out her railguns, firing them and her beam rifle at the same time. The GOUF raised its arms at the Duel and fired its guns, but Garret deflected the attacks with his shield.

"Garret! Look out!" Lunamaria called. The Gundam pilot looked up and saw the flaming figure of the Murasame flying towards him. He jumped backwards as the mobile armour slammed into the ground and exploded. The GOUF raised its arms again and fired off another volley of shots, hitting and destroying the Duel's right arm.

"Argh! Dammit!" Garret roared as he staggered back. He dropped his shield and pulled out his beam sabre, getting ready for the GOUF that was rapidly approaching with its sword drawn. The GOUF struck out with its whip, wrapping it around the Duel's wrist and destroying the arm up to the elbow joint. "Shit!" Garret yelled.

"Garret!" Victoria yelled as she flew forward and slammed her beam sabre into the side of the GOUF. She disengaged the beam and flung the suit away with the tip of the shield before it exploded. Garret let out a sigh of relief and released his grip on the controls. "Are you ok?!" Victoria called, running over to the disarmed Gundam.

"Yeah, I'm ok" Garret said quietly. Lunamaria girl landed and approached the two pilots from the Ceres. "Well, looks like I won't be doing any fighting for a while" Garret sighed, checking a status report on the damage of the Gundam.

"Are either of you injured?" Lunamaria asked, looking between both suits. Victoria's had a few marks where shots had grazed her armour but Garret's Duel was clearly in far worse condition having lost its right arm and half of its left.

"We're fine" Garret said in reply.

"It's pretty funny when a green comes out of a battle in better condition than a red" Lunamaria said with a giggle. Garret ignored the comment and began heading in the direction of the location where they would rendezvous with the Minerva and Ceres. "Seriously though, are you ok Garret? You got pretty beaten up there" Luna asked, her tone genuinely worried now.

"I'm fine, just a bit of a headache from being bounced around" Garret replied, only just realizing how much his head actually did hurt.

"Well then, let's head for the ships and try to avoid any other Purity groups" Luna stated and the three all began working together again, the Gundams deactivating their phase shift armour.

"So, you're a veteran from the last war right Lunamaria?" Victoria asked the other girl curiously, bringing up a video link between all three mobile suits.

"Yeah that's right, and please, just call me Luna" the Gundam pilot said with a nod. Victoria silently nodded in reply. "I was assigned to the Minerva in that war as well, I spent most of the time fighting in a ZAKU, the one my sister Meyrin pilots now. After Shinn was given the Destiny, I took over piloting the Impulse here" she explained.

"How did you manage to get involved in this war as well?" Garret asked.

"Well to be honest, Meyrin and I aren't really soldiers for ZAFT anymore. We're part of a separate group but we were asked to join the Joule Team to assist with this mission. I assume that we'll both probably be returning to space again soon" Luna explained to the other two pilots.

"So you're more or less just acting as mercenaries" Garret pointed out.

"Something like that, yeah" Lunamaria said in reply.

"Well whatever the reasons are, it's good to have such an experienced fighter here with us" Victoria said with a smile.

"Aww, thanks a lot" Lunamaria replied.

They reached the ships with no further resistance along the way. The Minerva and Ceres were both grounded in a large canyon formed between two mountain ranges. The three mobile suits stopped and the Impulse turned to face the others. "Well then, this is where we depart, thanks for helping me out" Luna spoke, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, it was nice meeting you. Too bad it had to be on the battlefield" Victoria said with a slight sigh.

"I guess the circumstances will be the same next time we meet too" Garret spoke.

"Unfortunately. Well, I hope I get to see you both again before I leave. Goodbye!" Lunamaria said, waving with her Gundam and then flying back to the Minerva. Garret and Victoria quickly returned to the hangar of the Ceres, docking their mobile suits. As Garret travelled down to the floor on his zip line he saw Marcel running up to him and smiled a little.

"Garret! Are you ok?!" the brown haired boy yelled out before Garret had even touched down on the floor.

"I'm fine Marcel, don't worry" he replied with a smile still on his face. Victoria walked over to them and removed her helmet, letting her long, brown hair free.

"I'm fine too, thanks for asking" she remarked, poking out her tongue at her friend a little.

"Oh, sorry Victoria, I was just worried about Garret since his suit is in such bad shape" Marcel commented apologetically.

"I just screwed up a bit on the terrain then just got a little careless fighting a GOUF" Garret explained as the three headed to the locker rooms where the two pilots got changed into their proper uniforms.

"What are you gonna do about your Duel? I don't think this ship is equipped with the parts to repair it" Marcel pointed out. Garret sighed in response; he knew that his friend was right.

"If that's the case, I'll have to go back to piloting my GINN for a while" Garret replied, shrugging his shoulders slightly. "Not that it really bothers me, I'm more comfortable in that anyway" he continued as they headed for the bridge. Once they arrived they were greeted by Captain Phillips and Commander Falcon.

"Garret, Victoria, welcome back. Judging by the condition of the Duel, I'm unsure whether or not your mission was a success" Aston said, rubbing his chin.

"It was sir. We successfully eliminated the enemy squad, I just took some bad hits during the battle" Garret explained.

"Well done, I'll expect a full report from the two of you later. I want you both to report to the sick bay just to be checked for injuries" Aston instructed.

"Yes sir!" Garret and Victoria said at the same time before saluting their Commander and leaving the bridge. After leaving the sick bay, Garret headed down to the hangar and found Commander Falcon sitting in his GOUF.

"Commander, is something wrong with your suit?" Garret called out, walking to the feet of the white mobile suit.

"Nothing in particular, just running a system check" Aston replied. He climbed out of the cockpit and descended to the floor in front of Garret. "I'm guessing that you'll be piloting your GINN again for a while, judging by the state of your Duel that is" he said.

"So there's no way the Duel can be repaired at the moment?" Garret asked. Aston sighed and shook his head.

"The problem is; our mobile suit stock was taken before the battle in which you were… 'given' the Duel. So on the records that were sent to this ship before we came to Earth, it said that you were still piloting a GINN so there were no parts sent here for the Gundam" Aston explained. Garret nodded in understanding, it made sense. "Will you be fine piloting your GINN in the atmosphere" the Commander asked.

"It's not the first time sir. I'll be fine" Garret pointed out.

"Ah right, the last time would have been that mission with Cecil I suppose right?" the red haired man asked. Garret nodded in reply. "How could I forget that fight?" Aston sighed, leaning against the leg of the GOUF. Garret turned his head to the side, a sad look on his face.


	10. Chapter 10

-Earth, CE74-

"Garret, Aston! Both of you stay on the ground, the radar is picking up some aquatic suits coming from the coast! I'll head for their ship in the ocean!" Cecil called to his comrades. His GuAIZ R soared through the sky, riding on a Guul. The GINN and GOUF belonging to the other two ZAFT soldiers took cover behind some ruins on the battlefield.

"Come on Garret, show us that promotion to red wasn't a mistake" the red haired pilot laughed. Garret took a deep breath and took a more relaxed hold of his suit's controls. "I'm kidding, just take it easy. Don't get yourself killed out there" Aston said more seriously.

"Right" Garret said in reply to his comrade. The two reds checked their guns over and peeked out of cover. "Two GOOhNs, two ZnOs and a BuCUE, closing in from straight ahead" Garret pointed out, looking between each of the enemies. "So they're part of Purity?" Garret asked.

"That's right" Aston replied.

"Why is it that they only seem to be using ZAFT suits?" Garret asked.

"Probably because we have more versatile suits for use in the atmosphere. That would be my guess anyway" Aston spoke. "Now, reckon you can handle the BuCUE by yourself?" he asked his comrade.

"I should be able to" Garret replied, watching the four-legged suit sliding across the ground on its treads.

"It will have a large speed advantage on you, if things get too difficult fall back immediately" Aston instructed.

"Yeah I know. I don't plan on dying here. Now, let's get this done!" Garret called. The GINN leant around the side of the ruins and fired off several rounds of its machine gun at the incoming suits.

"Go!" Aston called. He engaged his flight pack and leapt into the air, his sword drawn. Garret charged out across the grass with his sword in one hand and his gun in the other. The GOOhNs leant up and fired off a barrage of missiles at the blue GOUF, but Aston blocked the attack with his shield. The BuCUE tore towards the GINN, engaging its beam blades in its head and readying the missile launcher on its back. Garret heard an explosion and saw the debris of one of the GOOhNs Aston had cleaved with his sword.

"Can't fall behind" Garret said, focusing on the BuCUE. He raised his gun, aimed at the mobile suit and fired off a volley of rounds. The Purity suit skated to the side however, dodging the bullets. "Sit still!" the ZAFT pilot yelled, running straight at the mobile suit.

"Garret!" Aston yelled, seeing the GINN charging forward. The BuCUE changed its angle slightly so that the beam blade would hit the GINN easier. Garret grinned and sped up slightly.

"You're mine" Garret said quietly. He raised his sword and then slammed the tip of the blade down into the ground. He then engaged his boosters and leapt to the side as the BuCUE tried to change its angle. The suit managed to avoid the sword directly, but the blade still severed the left legs of the BuCUE. Garret then raised his rifle and let loose an entire clip into the body of the suit that was sliding across the grass on its side. Aston smiled as he saw the BuCUE explode. He then descended quickly and flung his whip straight into the second GOOhNs cockpit. He landed on the suit, knocking it to the ground and then leapt back as it exploded.

"Nicely done Garret" Aston commented as his comrade joined him.

"Thanks Aston. Just the ZnOs now" Garret spoke, watching the green aquatic mobile suits walking towards them. They raised their hands and began firing blasts from their phonon maser cannons. The GOUF took off into the sky and the GINN ran to the side. Garret crouched down on one knee and fired off a clip of his machine gun. The bullets all slammed into the first ZnO, destroying it. "Crap, I'm out of clips!" Garret exclaimed, reaching for a new clip. He turned around and saw his sword still in the ground where he had left it and ran for the weapon. The GOUF flew around in the sky, avoiding the cannon shots from the ZnO as he tried to get closer. He raised his shield and flew straight down at the ZnO who kept trying to shoot the blue mobile suit down.

"Heh. You're mine Coordinator" the pilot of the ZnO muttered as Aston lowered his shield to attack with his sword. The ZnO lashed out and grabbed onto the GOUF's leg with its claw.

"Oh crap!" Aston exclaimed. The ZnO swung the GOUF around before slamming it hard into the ground, wrecking the flight pack on the suit. "Damn, damn, damn!" he yelled as several of his screens exploded from the impact.

"Aston!" Garret yelled, running full pelt at the ZnO. The aquatic mobile suit clamped its claw down and crushed the leg of the GOUF and then raised its other claw, aiming it at the cockpit. "You bastard!" Garret roared and he raised the GINN's sword. He pulled his arm back and then hurled the weapon like a boomerang at the ZnO. The blade slammed into the suit's shoulder, causing it to stagger backwards slightly.

"Garret, here!" Aston called, flinging the GOUF's sword across the ground. Garret kept running and picked it up as he ran past.

"I'll kill you!" Garret yelled as he reached the ZnO and raised the sword. The ZnO raised its undamaged arm and aimed the claw at the GINN. Garret swung the sword out and cut the arm in half before aiming it at the cockpit. He drove the point clean through the cockpit and then pushed the ZnO away before it exploded. Garret turned to the GOUF and knelt down. "Aston, are you alright?" he called to his friend.

"I'm fine, one hell of a headache though… also think my shoulder is broken" Aston replied. He sounded alright for someone who almost died, Garret thought. "The cockpit is jammed, reckon you can help me out?" he asked Garret.

"Right" Garret said. He reached down with the GINN and grabbed the cockpit. He clenched the hand, watching the metal crumble and then tore the cockpit covering off, flinging it aside. Aston undid his seatbelt and climbed out of the mobile suit, climbing down to the ground, holding his left shoulder.

"Garret, come in!" Cecil's voice called over the radio.

"Cecil, what is it?" Garret asked in reply.

"I'm under attack, eight ZAKU Slashes and something else… it's the Strike Gundam!" Cecil explained. "Get back to the ship and get out of here, I'll hold them off!" he ordered.

"What? No way! I'm not leaving you to fight all those!" Garret exclaimed.

"Just go Garret… you don't stand a chance against these enemies, they're Purity elites. I'll follow you soon, I promise" Cecil said quietly.

"But…!" Garret began but he was interrupted.

"Garret, go. Goodbye… my friend" Cecil spoke and then the communication cut out.

"CECIL!" Garret yelled, slamming his fist against the console.

-Earth, CE75-

"We lost a good friend that day" Aston said quietly, his eyes closed.

"Aston…" Garret said, looking to his Commander.

"It's been a while since you called me that" Aston said, a faint smile on his face.

"I hate this war… so many innocent lives lost, for no reason. It's all stupid!" Garret said, punching the GOUF's leg.

"I know. But all we can do now is fight, and hope that it'll achieve something" Aston spoke. "Now, perhaps you should go check that your GINN is functioning properly, it hasn't been used in a while after all" the Commander suggested.

"Yeah, good idea" Garret said in reply, walking towards his GINN. He climbed up into the suit, turned on the systems and stared into the console.

The Ceres and Minerva travelled for the next day with no conflict. They reached the borders of Perth and Commander Falcon stood on the bridge, examining the damage. "My god… this is much worse than Sydney…" he muttered to himself.

"That's probably because this city has felt the force of a full-scale battle, Sydney was only a minor skirmish between our squads and Purity" Captain Phillips pointed out.

"For something they're trying to protect, Purity is sure doing a number on the place" Aston said to himself. "Alright, give the order for our pilots to wait in their machines, we'll launch as soon as we get to the combat zone!" Aston ordered, running from the bridge.

"All hands to level 2 battle stations, pilots board your machines and prepare for combat. I repeat, all hands, level 2 battle stations, pilots board your machines and prepare for combat" Karl's voice spoke over the ship's intercom.

"Garret, you good to go?" Marcel asked, looking to his friend.

"Anytime, let's get going" Garret said in reply. He turned to Victoria before heading off. "You gonna be alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah, why?" Victoria asked in return.

"I was just a bit worried, you're only new to the whole piloting job and we've been fighting a lot lately" Garret explained.

"Hey, if I couldn't handle the job I wouldn't have signed up. Trust me, I'll be fine" the young woman said with a kind smile.

"Alright then, let's go" Garret said and the three pilots headed to the locker rooms. Within minutes they were all changed and on board their mobile suits. Garret sat in the seat of his GINN and gripped the controls tight. "It's been a while… huh pal?" he asked into the computer screen before him.

"Garret" Commander Falcon's voice spoke as his face appeared on Garret's screen.

"Yes Commander, what is it?" Garret asked in return.

"I'm sorry I bought up such a painful memory before, are you going to be ok out there?" Aston asked.

"I'll be fine. I've made up my mind, I'm not going to let this war take away any more of my friends, not a single one" Garret said seriously. Aston smiled at his friend.

"That's good then, I'll be counting on you out there" the Commander said.

"Aston, let's do this… for Cecil" Garret said. He closed the communication before the other pilot could reply and put the visor down on his helmet. Aston smiled to himself and stepped the GOUF onto the catapult.

"Marcel, Victoria, I want the two of you to keep your suits on the ship and help with covering fire while Garret and I go onto the battlefield" Aston explained. Marcel and Victoria acknowledged the order and readied their mobile suits.

"All hands, upgrade to level 3 battle stations, all pilots head out immediately!" Karl's voice called.

"Alright, let's get this done" Aston said, watching as the hatch for the catapult opened. "Aston Falcon, GOUF Ignited, engage!" the Commander called and his suit soared out into the sky, clouded by smoke.

"Garret, you're clear for launch" Karl spoke to the GINN pilot.

"Roger. Garret Kross, GINN, soar!" Garret called and the mobile suit was flung onto the battlefield. He landed on the ground and turned to see the ZAKU and GuAIZ stood on the outside of the ship, their guns scanning the area.

"Hey, Garret" Marcel spoke over the GINN's radio.

"What is it Marcel?" Garret asked in return.

"Make sure you and the Commander get back here alive" Marcel said quietly.

"Don't worry, we'll be fine" Garret said, a smile on his face. He walked the GINN across the charred ground, looking at the battle zone ahead. He could see ZAFT forces heavily engaged with Purity forces. There were numerous casualties on both sides by the looks of it, Garret thought to himself. He pulled his rifle off the back of his waist and ran into the battle area.


	11. Chapter 11

He was instantly set upon by two M1 Astrays that charged head on at him, their shields raised. Garret swiftly pulled out his sword and held it out before him. "Activate Phase Cutter" he spoke to himself, flicking the switch for the system. The Phase Cutter gel engulfed the sword blade and he boosted forward. He swung the sword horizontally, slicing through the shield with one hit. He then swung the rifle up, put the barrel against the cockpit and unloaded several rounds into the suit.

"Coordinator bastard!" the pilot of the other Astray yelled, charging at Garret with his beam sabre. Garret sidestepped the vertical swing and then drove his sword through the waist of the Orb mobile suit. Garret looked up and saw Aston fighting against several BABIs, he knew the Commander could handle himself.

"I'm moving on ahead!" Garret called to Aston as his GINN ran under the skirmish the Commander was engaged in. Aston struck with the heat whip of his suit, coiling around the waist of one of the BABIs and splitting the mobile suit in half. The other two BABIs transformed into their mobile armour forms and fired off a barrage of missiles. Aston raised his suit's arms and fired off his guns, destroying most of the missiles. The others he blocked with his shield. One of the Purity suits transformed again and readied the multi-phase beam cannon in its chest. Aston took the chance and thrust his sword through the cannon, destroying the BABI. He then spun around and raised his free arm and fired his beam gun at the last mobile suit, taking out one of its wings. The BABI tilted to one side and descended to the ground, transforming to land properly.

"Now you're mine" Aston spoke as he flew down before the Purity pilot had a chance to react and cut the body diagonally, causing it to explode. "Ok all done, time to join Garret" the Commander said and he flew off in the direction that the GINN had gone.

Garret charged across the battlefield, occasionally stopping to fire at Purity mobile suits that weaved through the crumbling buildings. "Dammit, this place is filled with these bastards. I can't get anywhere without running into them every five freaking minutes!" the ZAFT pilot roared as he destroyed a Purity Strike Dagger. Garret stopped for a moment, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, gripping the controls. Garret opened his eyes and looked up as the familiar white GOUF landed next to him.

"Everything ok?" Aston asked, the eye of his mobile suit scanning the streets.

"Yeah I'm fine, just taking a quick break" Garret replied, stretching his shoulders slightly. The two began to walk their machines down the road heading for the centre of the city.

"_Garret, Commander, there's an Aegis and Buster heading your way! Be careful!_" Victoria's voice spoke over the communicator of the two mobile suits. Garret drew his sword with his free hand so he had both of the GINN's weapons ready.

"Do you think you can handle the Buster?" Aston asked his comrade, hovering into the air slightly.

"Yeah I should be fine. I don't have the manoeuvrability to handle the Aegis" Garret said in reply. Before the two could say another word a Buster Gundam rounded the corner and an Aegis came soaring over the buildings riding on a Guul. "Alright, bring it on!" Garret roared, charging forward, firing the GINN's machine gun at the green Gundam. The Buster joined its guns together into its shotgun like weapon and fired it at Garret. The ZAFT pilot flicked the switch for his boosters and briefly leapt into the air to avoid the attack. Garret quickly engaged the Phase Cutter for his sword while still in the air and then boosted down at the Buster, raising his sword for an overhead strike.

"Not a chance!" the pilot of the Buster spoke, opening the missile pods on the suit's shoulders and firing several at the incoming GINN.

"Shit!" Garret yelled trying to steer the GINN off course. The first missile struck the left arm of the GINN, destroying the limb and throwing the mobile suit to the side out of the path of the other missiles which stuck a building behind Garret.

"Now you're mine" the Buster pilot said triumphantly, holding his two individual guns under the Gundam's arms and pointing them at the GINN. Garret shook the controls of his mobile suit desperately trying to make it move, but it was no use, the systems weren't reacting fast enough to get him out of the way.

"I'm sorry partner" Garret whispered as he quickly opened the cockpit of the GINN. He leapt out and ran as fast as he could away from the mobile suit. The Buster opened fire with both its guns destroying the fallen mobile suit. The resulting explosion caused a shockwave that threw Garret through the air and sent him tumbling across the road into an alleyway.

"Garret!" Aston yelled, having not seen the young pilot leaving his suit just before the explosion. "Damn you!" he roared, descending on the Buster with his sword ready. He spun through the air avoiding the shots of the Buster as he cleaved through the neck of the Gundam, causing the head to spiral away. His next attack took of the right arm of the buster followed by its left leg.

"What the hell?!" the pilot of the Buster yelled as his Gundam fell backwards, smashing through a house. "Who the hell is that bastard?" he groaned, opening the Gundam's missile pod on the left shoulder. Aston in return raised his arms and fired several shots from his beam gun into the shoulder, destroying it. "Hilde! Get me the hell outta here!" the pilot of the Buster yelled. The Aegis turned and fired a volley of shots from its rifle at the GOUF, causing it move away from the buster. The red Gundam then quickly transformed into its mobile armour form, grabbed the Buster and flew away from the GOUF. "Thank god Purity modified the Aegis so it could fly under gravity in its mobile armour form, I almost died down there" Allen sighed, leaning back in the Buster's seat.

Aston landed his mobile suit near the wreckage of the GINN. He looked around the pieces of debris for any sign of movement. "Dammit all to hell!" Aston roared, slamming his fist down on the console of his suit.

"Aston, come in! We just lost the GINN's signal, what happened?" Richard called over to comm. link to the GOUF. Aston remained silent, staring out at the pieces of the GINN. "Aston, do you copy?" Richard asked.

"I'm returning to the ship" Aston spoke as he engaged the flight pack of his mobile suit and flew towards the Ceres. He landed in the hangar and found Richard and Marcel waiting for him. He climbed out of the mobile suit and walked past the two soldiers waiting for him, not even taking his helmet off.

"Marcel, go see what happened" Richard spoke. Marcel nodded and walked for the locker rooms, holding his helmet under his arm. Marcel stood outside the closed door when he reached the room and listened.

"Dammit!" Aston roared, punching the door to his locker as hard as he could. He pulled his hand back from the large dent he made and closed his eyes as tears began rolling down his cheeks. The door opened and Marcel walked inside, placing his helmet down on top of the lockers.

"Commander, did Garret…?" he asked, knowing the answer before he even asked the question. The two stood in silence as Aston tried to calm himself down, but with no success.

Garret's eyes slowly opened, staring up at a dull light. He sat up slowly and gazed at his surroundings. He was in a small room with grey walls and a dim light hanging from the ceiling. The only furniture he could see was the small single bed he was laying on and a chair next to the bed. On the far side of the room was a tall, wooden door, Garret noticed there weren't even any windows in the room. He closed his eyes and could hear voice outside.

"You're telling me that guy in there is the one who killed Harrison and stole his Gundam? We should kill him now, why are we even letting him live?" a male voice demanded loudly.

"We are letting him live because obviously he is quite capable of piloting a Gundam. Not to mention he most likely knows the plans that ZAFT has in store for our Earth bases" a much calm male voice spoke in return. Garret tried to sit up as the room to the door opened and a tall man with black hair and dressed in a white suit walked in followed closely by a tall, well-built young man with black hair with coal coloured eyes and a shorter young woman with purple hair and eyes like sapphires. Garret recognised the first man immediately and tried to sit up quicker. "Please I urge you not to get up, your injuries are not quite healed yet" Alastair spoke, approaching the bed.

"What do you want with me?" Garret asked, trying to keep himself up. He could feel a bandage around his right shoulder and also lower on the same arm, a sling kept the limb in place.

"Straight to the point aren't you Coordinator?" Alastair asked, sitting on the seat next to the bed. Garret could see the young man that had also entered the room glaring at him. "Allen, stop with the glaring, you're making our guest uncomfortable" the Purity leader spoke, a tone of warning in his voice. Allen straightened up and looked away from the ZAFT pilot. Like all Purity soldiers, Allen and the purple haired girl with Alastair simply wore casual clothes. The group had no set uniform, even their pilot suits were merely recoloured versions of any the troops could get hold of.

"Allen… are you the pilot of that Buster from space?" Garret asked, looking to the Purity soldier. Allen turned around and a cruel smile crossed his lips.

"Yeah that's right, I'm also the one who trashed your little GINN the other day" he remarked before leaving the room.

"The other day… how long have I been out?" Garret asked, holding his hand to his head and closing his eyes.

"You've been unconscious for four days now, we were beginning to worry that you weren't going to wake up" Alastair said with a kind smile on his face. "You may not want to hear this but your allies were defeated in Perth, from what I hear however your ship managed to get away" he explained. After your comrade in the GOUF defeated Allen's Buster, Hilde went back and retrieved you as per my orders and then we brought you back here" Alastair explained.

"Why did you save me?" Garret asked.

"It's simple really, we have uses for you" Alastair replied, the same kind smile still on his face.

"I'm not working for Purity, no way. Besides, aren't you trying to eliminate all Coordinators?" Garret asked.

"True, but in the first Bloody Valentine war; did the Earth Forces not use Kira Yamato, one of the Coordinators they were fighting against to obtain many victories?" Alastair asked. "I won't force you to join us…" he began but Garret interrupted.

"But you'll kill me if I don't" he said abruptly, reaching up and removing the sling on his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the purple haired young woman take a few steps towards the bed.

"Hilde" was all Alastair said and the girl stopped. "You are incorrect, I would not kill you for simply turning down our offer, I am not that kind of man you see. I would simply send you back to the PLANTs, should you choose to fight again from there, my men would not hesitate to shoot you down for good. It is your choice" Alastair told the young pilot. Garret sat in thought for a moment, if he went along with Purity, not only could he get his hands on a new Gundam but he could also get some inside information on them. However it also meant that he may have to shoot down some ZAFT pilots.

"I need time to think" Garret replied, laying back down.

"Of course, it is a hard decision after all. I will return in two hours for your answer. Hilde, look after him" Alastair said, rising to his feet and leaving the room.

"Yes sir!" Hilde spoke, saluting the man. She moved over and sat where Alastair had been, watching the ZAFT pilot.

"Tell me something" Garret said to Hilde, not sitting up again.

"What?" the young woman replied.

"Why do you fight for Purity, why do you want to kill the Coordinators?" Garret asked, experimentally trying to move his injured arm.

"Why do you want to know?" Hilde asked in response, crossing her legs slightly.

"I'm just curious is all" Garret replied, closing his eyes.

"I have my reasons and someone like you doesn't need to know them" the female Purity pilot stated. "You've gotten lucky so far with both of our encounters Coordinator. In space you only lived because I was called back to the Cherubim and this time it was only because Lord Alastair sent me to retrieve you" Hilde explained.

"What makes you think you'd have won back in space?" Garret asked, rolling over to face the purple haired girl.

"You were using a suit you weren't familiar with and to be brutally honest my Aegis would have easily overpowered your friend's ZAKU" Hilde replied.

"Don't underestimate a pilot just because they're in a mass-produced and you're piloting a Gundam. I destroyed a Duel pretty easily using my GINN back in space. Just because you're piloting a Gundam doesn't mean you're indestructible, the Duel I was using was trashed by a GOUF" Garret explained. Hilde sat silent, watching the young ZAFT pilot. Garret rolled onto his back again and stared at the roof, wondering what Marcel and Victoria were doing.


	12. Chapter 12

The Ceres docked at a base in New South Wales, west of Sydney where it had retreated to from Perth. Marcel stood on the outside deck of the ship staring out across the base, watching mobile suits carrying large boxes of weaponry, parts and supplies between buildings. His undone jacket flowed gently around him in the light breeze, his hair following suit. "Garret..." he said quietly, his hands tightening on the ship's railing. He tuned when Victoria approached from behind him, her eyes were rimmed with red, he knew she'd been crying. The two stood in silence side by side watching the tasks going on in the base below them.

On the bridge, Aston stood with Captain Phillips examining the ammunition stock. "We need a full stock of Dispar missiles and a half stock of Parsifals. Make sure we also refill our supply of Anti-Beam Depth Charges" the red haired commander told the Captain.

"Yes, I think that's about all we need. I'll get that list to our suppliers along with our rations list" Richard said in response. "How are Marcel and Victoria doing?" he asked the white uniformed pilot.

"It's hard for them, it's the first time they've lost a comrade to the fight" Aston replied, sitting on the seat that was behind him.

"What about you? It can't exactly be easy for you either" the Captain pointed out.

"It's not. Losing a friend is something no one should ever be able to get used to. Garret was the last comrade I had left from my old squad, it's quite painful to have lost him now too. He truly was a great person, in and out of a mobile suit" Aston sighed, putting his hand to his face and into his fringe. "I wish I could have gotten to him in time, I feel like it's partly my fault" Aston said quietly.

"I suppose we'll have to send his belongings back to the PLANTs along with an incident report of what happened" Richard sighed, leaning back in his chair. Aston nodded to the Captain, rose to his feet and left the bridge.

"So, what are you going to do once Lord Alastair comes back? Will you give him an answer?" Hilde asked Garret who was still staring at the roof of the room he was confined to.

"Why are you so interested? Aren't you meant to hate Coordinators?" Garret asked in reply.

"I was trying to make conversation, it's boring as hell in here" the female pilot replied.

"What's your take on this war then? Do you think it's really the right thing to do? Are you fighting for the right people?" Garret asked, sitting up.

"I don't see why you're concerned about that but I'll satisfy your curiosity. I do not fight in this war because I particularly hate the Coordinators. I do it for Lord Alastair. He took Allen, Harrison and myself away from a life on the streets not long before he started Purity. He saved my life, fighting for him is what gives it meaning, protecting his ideals is the least I can do in return for him taking me in" Hilde explained, leaning on the hind legs of the wooden chair.

"You want to wipe out an entire group of humanity just to pay back one man?" Garret asked.

"You could never understand" Hilde said curtly, glaring at the young Coordinator.

"I really hope that what you're fighting for is the right thing. It would be sad to see a life wasted for nothing" Garret spoke. Swinging his legs over the side of his bed opposite to Hilde. "But me... I'm not going to sit back and watch as my friends and family are slaughtered by you people. Not a chance in hell" Garret said, looking at Hilde, the conviction in his eyes clear. He got to his feet and started towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Hilde demanded, rising quickly to her feet. The purple haired girl ran towards Garret, reaching for the gun in her hip holster. Garret's reflexes kicked in immediately. He quickly bent his knees and then barged his good shoulder into Hilde's side, flicking his wrist out to steal her gun. He stood up straight, pointing the weapon at the girl who quickly regained her balance.

"Tell your 'lord' I made up my made, I'd rather die before fighting for Purity" Garret spoke, Hilde could see the fire in the young man's eyes. Garret winced as he used his injured arm to open the door to the room and then ran out, Hilde's gun at his side. "Well, I got out of that room... now what the hell do I do from here?" he asked himself as he ran through the deserted corridor before him. He took a quick glance behind him and saw Hilde running the opposite, probably going to alert to Alastair he thought. He ran past a large window which he looked out, there he saw his escape route. Mobile suits. "Gotta be a door for that hangar somewhere" Garret whispered to himself as he continued to run along the corridor. He stopped after a few seconds and kicked open the first door he saw and ran through it. Garret ran down a flight of stairs and then through a second door through which he found himself in the hangar. Instantly the Purity soldiers around noticed the newcomer, looking at his red pants and long white boots. "This can't be good..."Garret murmured, watching as the soldiers began reaching for guns.

Garret took advantage of their slow reaction times and made a break for the closest mobile suit to him, a DINN. He quickly leapt to the lift in front of it and hit the button with the butt of his pistol. He crouched behind the console as the lift began to rise and the Purity soldiers fired a barrage of bullets at him. He leant over the top a few times and let loose random shots at the soldiers, not really trying to hit them, just stop them for a second or two. When the lift finally reached the cockpit of the DINN Garret leapt inside and closed the hatch. "Alright, time to get out of here" Garret said to himself, grasping the controls and wincing slightly from the pain in his injured arm. He booted up the mobile suit and looked down at the Purity soldiers running for their own mobile suits. In the window he had passed before he could see Alastair shouting orders to soldiers behind him, Allen and Hilde were at his sides. Garret broke free of the clamps holding the DINN and walked towards the door of the hangar. He opened up the launchers on the suit's shoulders and fired several missiles, easily destroying the doors. "Soar!" he yelled, transforming the DINN into its flight mode and taking off through the hole he had created.

As Garret left the hangar, he quickly took in the cityscape before him, he was in Sydney. The base he had escaped from was just on the outskirts of the city on the opposite side to the one the Ceres and Minerva had destroyed only days earlier. "Oh man, this Natural OS is really holding the suit back" Garret said, looking over the status of the DINN. He turned and saw that the Purity suits were only just launching from the base, he had to get away quickly. The other DINNs that were coming he knew he could probably overpower or outmanoeuvre, it was the Murasames he could see that worried him. "Those Murasames would have the same OS as this thing meaning they won't be able to fly at their best standards. If this was a ZAFT DINN I could probably beat them, but with this damn Purity OS I'm not sure" he said to himself, pushing forward on the controls a little more. He ignored the pain in his shoulder and arm as he flew the mobile suit forward. It was only then he realised he had no idea where the Ceres had gone after leaving Perth, he had no idea how to reach them and the closest large ZAFT base was probably in Victoria. "Screw it, I'm not about to die just running from these guys, if I'm going down I'll get rid of as many of them as I can!" Garret roared, spinning his DINN around and pulling out both the suit's machine gun and shotgun.

The Purity mobile suits also pulled out their own weapons. Garret was up against three DINNs and two Murasames that also drew their weapons. The five Purity suits were all in their flight forms like Garret and they were approaching him quickly. Garret closed his eyes and took a deep breath, relaxing his grip on the DINN's controls. "Let's do this" he said when his eyes opened again. He flew forward, firing the shotgun at the DINN at the front of the Purity formation. The swift attack struck home, destroying one of the mobile suit's wings and some of the shrapnel from the shit hitting the cockpit, sending it crashing into the city below where it exploded. Garret dodged a burst of shots from the machine gun of one of the other DINN's before retaliating with his own, destroying the head of the mobile suit. Seeing the swift defeat of two of their comrades, the three remaining Purity pilots backed away from the ZAFT pilot slightly.

"I'll take him from the front, you two circle around behind him" the DINN pilot said to the two soldiers in the Murasames. They acknowledged the order and backed off from their comrade slightly. The Purity DINN flew head-on at Garret, opening up the launchers on its shoulders and firing off a wave of anti-air missiles.

"Not a chance!" Garret said, firing his machine gun in a wide arc and destroying the missiles before they reached him. With the explosion as cover the two Murasames quickly split off to Garret's flanks and transformed, readying their beam rifles. "Shit!" Garret yelled seeing the mobile suits. He saw the enemy DINN with its guns raised as the smoke from the missiles cleared and the young ZAFT pilot's eyes widened when the guns fired. He closed his eyes and he saw multiple images of his friends in his mind. Marcel, Lucian, Aston and Captain Phillips were there. The last two faces he saw were Victoria's and Cecil's. Garret felt his grip on the DINN's controls tighten and his eyes flicked open, his pupils dilated in the centre of a sea of silver. "I won't let you... defeat me" Garret spoke and he pulled back and down on the controls, speeding backwards towards the ground. As he was falling, Garret pulled out the keyboard of the mobile suit and typed across it with lightning speed. Within seconds he rewrote the operating system of the DINN and regained his grip on the mobile suit's controls.

Garret's DINN flew forward at top speed, heading straight for the Purity DINN. He reached it and slammed his shotgun against the other purple suit's cockpit and pulled the trigger. He quickly kneed the other DINN away before it exploded and then turned to the Murasames.

"W..what the hell is with this guy? Where did that speed come from?" one of the Murasame pilots exclaimed, trying to line a shot up on the DINN. Garret saw the mobile suit lining up its gun, turned and headed straight for it. He spun around the few shots the Purity pilot could fire before he reached him and grabbed the Murasame by the head. He placed his machine gun against the cockpit and held down the trigger until the clip was empty. He quickly flung the mobile suit away before turning on the last Purity pilot. Learning from the mistakes of trying keep the ZAFT pilot at a distance, the last remaining pilot pulled out his suit's beam sabre and flew towards Garret.

"Not gonna work" Garret said, dancing to the side as the Murasame attempted a vertical strike on him. The DINN quickly pulled up its shotgun and fired through the side of the mobile suit. Garret watched as it fell most of the way to the city below before it exploded and then began to fly away from the base.

The Purity soldiers in the base stood speechless as they saw how the single DINN decimated five of their suits while being flown by and injured pilot. "Lord Alastair, do you want me to mobilise in the Aegis and take him down?" Hilde asked, turning to the man in the white suit.

"Yeah, I'll take a Murasame and we can take another team to shoot that ZAFT bastard down!" Allen said, raising his hand and curling it into a tight fist.

"No, let him go. I'm not going to risk anymore pilots. Besides, I'm curious to see what will happen with him" Alastair said as he turned and walked away from the two pilots. "Garret Kross, it would seem he too bares the Seed like the 'heroes' of the last wars. How interesting" the man said quietly to himself, a thin smile crossing his lips as he walked.

After getting a decent distance from the city, Garret landed his DINN in a large open plain and let go of the controls. "What happened?" he asked himself, placing his hand on his forehead. "I feel like I wasn't even in control of my body for the last part of that fight" he said, looking at his palm as he lowered it. "I need to find ZAFT forces somewhere before this DINN runs out of battery. Dammit, where am I meant to go?" he sighed to himself, bringing up a map on the mobile suit's screen. "Victoria seems like the closest ZAFT occupied area around but there's no way I'll make it there. Wait a second, there's a small base west of here that the map says is occupied by ZAFT, that'll do!" Garret said, closing the map and grabbing the controls once more. He began the slow walk to the west, trying to conserve as much of the DINN's power as possible.


	13. Chapter 13

"Commander, I want to go out and do some scouting for a while" Marcel told Aston while they both stood in the Ceres' hangar. "We're pretty close to Sydney and we can't really risk any Purity forces getting too close" he said, glancing towards his ZAKU.

"But what will you do if you come across a Purity group? You can't expect to take down a whole group of their mobile suits with a single ZAKU" Aston said in reply, leaning against the leg of his GOUF, his arms folded.

"I know that, if I see any I'll get back here straight away. Please Commander, just sitting around doing nothing is driving me crazy, I need to get out there and clear my head" Marcel pleaded, staring into the eyes of his superior.

"Alright fine, an hour and then I want you back here" Aston stated. Marcel nodded and ran for his ZAKU. "Just be careful" Aston whispered to himself as he left the hangar. Marcel's mobile suit was loaded onto the catapult and the young pilot pulled the seatbelts over his jacket.

"Probably should've put my flight suit on... oh well" Marcel shrugged as he watched the lights brighten on the catapult. "ZAKU, launching" he spoke before the green mobile suit was shot onto the ground of the base. Marcel walked his machine away from the base into the surrounding plain, his rifle raised. The ZAKU wandered across the grassy plain, its lone eye sweeping the landscape for any sign of an enemy force.

"Garret, I'll fight this war for both of us. I'll shoot down every single one of those Purity bastard, I swear it!" Marcel said, his hands gripping the controls tight. He walked forward in his mobile suit and his eyes narrowed when he saw a lone DINN standing in the middle of the plains ahead of him. "The codes aren't ZAFT, that's a Purity DINN!" Marcel spoke loudly, looking around for any others. He took note that the eye of the mobile suit was off meaning it was inactive. "Maybe it's some sort of trap..." he said, bringing his gun level with the DINN's chest. As he did so, the red eye of the purple mobile suit lit up and the wings opened. Marcel fired off several rounds from his rifle but the Purity suit soared into the air, evading the shots.

"Not bad, let's see how you handle this!" Marcel said, taking a hand grenade from his waist and hurled it straight at the DINN. The Purity mobile suit swiftly pulled out its machine gun and took out the grenade in a few shots. The projectile exploded and the DINN flew forward through the smoke, approaching the ZAKU rapidly. "Shit!" Marcel roared, throwing his gun aside and taking the tomahawk from his shield. The DINN's legs flicked forward as it slid to a stop just in front of the ZAKU then it flew to the left, avoiding Marcel's vertical swing. "This guy's pretty good for a Natural" the ZAFT pilot commented, charging towards the flying mobile suit. The DINN shot forward, slowly descending until its feet touched the ground and it started running across the grass. Marcel struck out with another vertical strike when the Purity suit was close enough. The DINN took a step to the side and grabbed the green suit's arm.

"No! Let go!" Marcel roared, kicking the DINN in the lower leg. Marcel's eyes flicked down when he saw the cockpit of the DINN open when it staggered from the kick. "No way..." Marcel said quietly as he zoomed in on the pilot who walked out onto the open hatch. His hands slowly fell from the controls and Garret's face stared up at him. The ZAKU's cockpit opened and Marcel got out of his seat and stepped out onto the hatch. "Garret... is that really you?" Marcel called, watching the pilot of the DINN.

"I think so, last time I checked anyway" Garret called back. He rode down to the ground using his zip line and Marcel did the same.

"We... we all thought you were dead. The Commander said he saw your suit get destroyed by the Buster" Marcel said, staring into the silver eyes of his friend.

"I'll tell you what happened later. For now let's get back to the Ceres, chances are there might be a Purity squad after me" Garret said in reply and Marcel nodded.

"Hey wait a sec, why didn't you just say it was you in the suit in the first place?" Marcel asked as they both slid up towards their mobile suits on the zip lines.

"The communicator is switched off, I turned it off to save power but now it won't come back on" Garret explained, climbing into the cockpit of the DINN. Marcel climbed into his suit and the two closed the covers of their cockpits. Garret let go of the ZAKU and the two stood up straight. Marcel motioned for Garret to follow him and the three began walking towards the ZAFT base the Ceres was docked at. They travelled without resistance and reached the ZAFT base where several of the mobile suits standing guard raised their weapons at Garret's DINN. "Oh right... Purity codes, forgot about that" Garret said.

"Lower your weapons, he's with me. The pilot of that DINN is Garret Kross from the Ceres" Marcel spoke, the eye of the ZAKU flicking between the two BABIs before himself and Garret.

"Garret Kross has been reported KIA, it is impossible for him to be in that mobile suit" one of the BABI pilots spoke, his beam rifle pointed at the DINN. Garret opened the cockpit for the DINN and stood up in the seat, his hands up. "Get out of your mobile suit and then keep your hands up!" the pilot of the BABI called to Garret. The injured ZAFT pilot did as he was told, wincing slightly as he felt the pain in his shoulder and arm again.

"What are you doing? He's on our side!" Marcel snapped, looking at the two BABIs.

"If he really is Garret Kross I'm sure the Captain of the Ceres will be able to identify him. For now we'll take him to the holding cells" the pilot that had been talking before replied. Garret looked up at Marcel as he was escorted away by several armed ZAFT soldiers. Marcel turned his ZAKU and ran for the hangar where the Ceres was located.

"Really getting sick of being confined in small rooms" Garret muttered as he was pushed into a cell and the steel door was locked behind him. He sat on the small bed against the far wall, looking down at his injured arm. He unravelled part of the bandage and saw a small line of black stitches running along the upper side of his lower arm. "No wonder that hurts" he said, redoing the bandage where he had removed it. He put his hand to his right shoulder, feeling around it a bit. "Dislocated..." he muttered. He stared at the door for a few minutes until he heard it unlock and saw Captain Phillips walk in along with a soldier in a yellow uniform.

"Is he Garret Kross sir?" the solider asked Richard, looking at the black uniformed man.

"Yes he is" Richard spoke, approaching the young pilot.

"Captain" Garret said with a nod when the man stopped.

"Let's get you back to the Ceres, I have a feeling everyone will be happy to see you" Richard said, holding out a hand to Garret. The pilot took it with his good arm and got to his feet. The two left the prison building and began walking across the base to the hangar from which Garret could see the front end of the Ceres protruding, in the next hangar over he could see the same section of the Minerva.

"How did you survive? Aston said he saw your GINN explode right before him" Richard stated. Garret smiled grimly; twice he'd heard that now.

"I managed to eject just in time but I was thrown and knocked unconscious by the shockwave of the explosion. After that I was captured by Purity before I woke up and taken to Sydney" Garret explained, trying to remember the fuzzy details of the fight in Perth.

"Did Purity do anything to you? Did you manage to learn anything?" Richard asked.

"Apart from the fact their mobile suits fly like crap, not a thing" Garret replied. Richard sighed in response; he was hoping Garret had at least found out something about Purity's plans.

"Oh well, at least we have you back safe and sound" Richard side, patting the pilot's good shoulder as they walked into the Ceres' hangar. The two reached the ship and instantly Garret was bombarded by Marcel and Victoria. The female pilot ran forward and threw her arms around the injured young man.

"Hey there" Garret said, a weak smile on his face.

"Don't ever scare me like that again!" Victoria shouted, pounding her fist on his chest.

"Ow, yeah I won't. Just please don't hit me so hard" Garret said, wincing slightly as the shock of the impact reached his shoulder.

"You had me so worried" Victoria sobbed, tears falling down her cheeks.

"I know, I'm sorry" Garret said gently as the girl stepped back slightly. "Marcel, where is the Commander?" Garret asked, looking at the other male pilot. Garret pointed to the Commander's white GOUF where Garret could see the crimson haired pilot leaning against the leg, his arms folded. Garret placed his left hand on Victoria's shoulder then walked over to the white uniformed soldier.

"Aston…" Garret said quietly, looking at the man's closed eyes.

"You really like making people worry don't you?" Aston asked, his eyes opening.

"Haha yeah… I guess it's a skill" Garret said with a quiet laugh.

"I suppose that's what you get for hanging around Cecil so long" Aston sighed, a smile on his face. That was probably true, Garret thought. Cecil had always been one for taking unnecessary risks in battle and doing things without telling anyone first, Garret and Aston had constantly worried about him and he'd never learned, no matter how often the two lectured him for doing it.

"Hey I came back alive didn't I?" Garret said; a grin on his face. Aston closed his eyes and smiled again. The comment brought back memories; Cecil always said the same thing whenever he came back from a fight. "Could I get a run down on the situation?" Garret asked Commander Falcon but the crimson haired man shook his head in reply.

"Not a chance. For now I want you to go to the sick bay and get yourself looked at" Aston said sternly. Garret went to open his mouth but Aston spoke before his subordinate could. "Don't even say you're fine. I want you in that sick bay now. You're injured and who knows if Purity did anything to you, go get checked out... that's an order" the Commander spoke. Garret sighed and walked away from his old friend, Marcel and Victoria following behind.

Garret's two friends stood outside the door to the sick bay while Garret was looked at. "I'm so happy he's alive" Victoria said with a smile on her face.

"Yeah me too. I can't believe he could have easily kicked my ass in that Purity DINN even when he was injured" Marcel said with a laugh, leaning back against the wall. The two stood, waiting for the door to open so they could go see Garret. They didn't have to wait long for the doctor to walk out, a tall man with black hair and small oval glasses.

"Ten minutes" the doctor said, walking away down the corridor. Both of the pilots knew that meant they head ten minutes to see Garret before the doctor would come back and kick them out. The two quickly walked in and saw Garret sitting on the bed. The three began talking until the doctor returned and Marcel and Victoria were made to leave.


	14. Chapter 14

**I apologise that it has been a little while since I have uploaded any new chapters. I have been rather busy lately and have hardly had a chance to get on here. But here is chapter 14, I hope you enjoy it.**

The Ceres stayed docked in the base for over a week while Garret started to heal. The ship was restocked, the mobile suits repaired and the pilots rested. On the ninth day, Captain Phillips sat on the bridge of the Ceres and watched his crew.

"Sir, I'm picking up several heat signatures closing in from eight o'clock!" Erik Wallace, the soldier in charge of the ship's radar called to the Captain.

"Friendlies?" Captain Phillips asked, looking over to the man.

"Negative sir! They've got Purity codes!" Erik called, watching the blips on the radar approaching the base. "I've got a visual, two Windams and an Aegis!" he told the black uniformed man.

"Move the ship out of the hangar! Get Marcel, Victoria and Aston to board their machines!" Richard said, looking between the crew. The crew hammered away at their consoles as the hangar walls retracted into the ground around them. With the Minerva having left the previous day for another mission, other than the base defence the Ceres was the only ship left in the base. Richard watched as several ZAKUs with their gunner wizard packs lining up at the walls, aiming their beam cannons at the approaching mobile suits.

"All hands, level 1 battle stations, Commander Falcon, Marcel and Victoria board your machines and launch immediately! I repeat, all hands, level 1 battle stations, Commander Falcon, Marcel and Victoria board your machines and launch immediately!" Kyle called over the ship's loudspeaker. Garret sat up in his bed and threw his legs over the side and stood up. He left the room and ran to the locker rooms.

"Garret, what are you doing here? You should be resting" Marcel said as he zipped up the top of his flight suit.

"I'm fine, there's no way I'm just gonna sit back while the ship is in danger!" Garret said, taking the flight suit in his locker.

"But what will you pilot? You don't exactly have your GINN" his friend continued, grabbing his helmet.

"He can use the Duel, the Minerva gave us some of their spare parts to repair it" Aston said, entering the room. Both Garret and Marcel turned to the older pilot. "Garret, you have my permission to launch, just don't get shot down… again" he spoke, walking past his comrades.

"Thank you Commander!" Garret said, putting his helmet on and running out to the hangar, Marcel close behind. Garret ran to the blue and white Gundam and grabbed the zip line. He rode it all the way up and climbed into the cockpit. He booted up the system as the mobile suit was carried to the catapult.

"Duel, you're clear for launch" Kyle spoke into the cockpit and Garret nodded, closing the visor of his helmet.

"Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" he called and the Duel was launched out into the base. As he checked his shield was secured properly, Aston's GOUF soared overhead and the ZAKU and GuAIZ R landed on either side of him. The ZAKUs from the base fired their weapons but the Purity mobile suits avoided the red and white beams. The Aegis flew forward on its Guul and leapt down in front of the base defence, engaging the beam sabres in its arms and slicing through the torsos of the two closest suits. As they exploded, the red Gundam lashed out and destroyed the remaining three within seconds.

"You three take the Aegis, I'll handle the Windams" Aston spoke, his white GOUF flying towards the two blue and white mobile suits hovering above the base. Garret aimed his beam rifle and pulled the trigger several times, the beams flying at the Aegis. The Gundam dodged the shot and turned on the three ZAFT mobile suits.

"I'm goin' in close, cover me!" Marcel called, pulling the tomahawk from the shield of his ZAKU and charging at the Aegis. The Duel and GuAIZ started firing their rifles at the Purity Gundam, causing it to dance around the shots while Marcel got closer to it. The ZAKU raised its tomahawk high and brought it down on the Aegis. The Purity suit moved back slightly so the edge of the tomahawk struck the waist. The attack opened a long gash on the Aegis as it staggered back. "You're mine!" Marcel roared, raising his tomahawk again to finish off the Aegis.

"Not a chance!" a female voice yelled from the Aegis as its arm flicked up with the beam sabre, slicing off the ZAKU's weapon arm.

"Shit!" Marcel yelled as the Aegis pulled its arm back ready to impale the green mobile suit's cockpit.

"Hilde!" Garret roared, flinging his rifle aside and charging forward as he drew his beam sabre. The Aegis stopped for a second, its head turning to face the blue and white Gundam. "Stop this dammit!" Garret called, ramming his shield into the red Gundam's torso.

"You…" he heard Hilde's voice say.

"Garret, do you know the pilot of that suit?" Victoria asked, flicking her railguns out on her waist and aiming them at the Aegis.

"She's one of the Purity pilots I met when they were holding me captive" Garret replied. He opened a private communication with Victoria. "I want to try and get her to join us; I don't think she's overly eager on Purity. They're just manipulating her" Garret said.

"Do you really think you can?" Victoria asked.

"I can try, I don't want to shoot her down, not when it's not really her choice to fight for them" Garret said and he closed the communication. Marcel staggered back from the Aegis and Duel, taking out his gun with his other hand. The three ZAFT suits turned when they heard explosions at the Ceres. They turned to see two black mobile suits flying around the ship, attacking it.

"Captain Phillips, what's going on?" Victoria called.

"Two DINN RAVENs are attacking us, they got in close with Mirage Colloid while you were all distracted" the Captain replied loudly over the explosions.

"Victoria, Marcel! Get back and cover the Ceres!" Commander Falcon called as he destroyed the last Windam and turned for the ship himself. Victoria and Marcel turned and ran for the ship, leaving Garret to fight Hilde.

"Can't you see it Hilde, Alastair is just manipulating you!" Garret roared, blocking a beam sabre strike from the young woman's Gundam.

"Shut up! I owe Lord Alastair my life, I will gladly give up my life to repay my debt to him!" Hilde yelled, swinging both of the arm beam sabres onto the Duel's shield.

"Is that really how you want to live, just willing to die because he says so?!" Garret roared, ramming his shield into the Aegis' head.

"You're no different! You'll go out and die whenever ZAFT says so!" Hilde screamed, pushing the Duel away.

"You're wrong! I refuse to die on someone else's orders; I have a life to live and a reason to keep on living it, no matter what!" Garret yelled in response, readying himself to block Hilde's next move.

One of the DINN RAVENs flew at blinding speed towards Aston's GOUF, bringing its shotgun up and aiming it at the white mobile suit. It fired the weapon but Aston raised his shield in defence, blocking the attack. He fired the guns on his arms but the DINN sped out of the way of the attack. "There's a chance these suits may be nuclear powered, disarm them but don't destroy them!" Aston ordered, engaging the beams on his sword.

"Cover me Marcel, Ceres send out a Guul!" Victoria called, firing several shots from her rifle at the DINN.

"You got it" Marcel spoke, raising his own gun and firing at the DINN as well as he saw the Guul launch from the Ceres and travel towards the GuAIZ R. Victoria boosted into the air and landed on the support craft, the feet of her mobile suit locking into place. "Victoria, be careful, you've hardly practised on that thing!" Marcel called.

"I'll be fine!" Victoria called, zipping away on the small aircraft. She flew up and activated the beam blade in her shield, her rifle ready in her other hand. "Let's do this…" she said quietly and she fired her rifle repeatedly at the DINN RAVEN that nimbly moved around the shots of both the GuAIZ and ZAKU.

"Dammit, how can a Natural be this good?" Marcel said as he tried to get a lock on the black mobile suit.

Garret stood his ground, repeatedly blocking the Aegis' sabre attacks with his shield or his own sabre. Garret lashed out with his Sabre, severing the red Gundam's left arm from the elbow. "I won't stop until I kill you Coordinator, you humiliated me in front of Lord Alastair!" Hilde roared, swinging her other arm at Garret. Again the ZAFT pilot raised his shield and blocked the attack. As he did so, Hilde engaged the beam sabre in her left leg and kicked up, severing the shaft that connected the shield to Garret's arm.

"Shit!" Garret yelled, jumping back and drawing his second beam sabre. "Can't you see they're just using you?!" he roared, charging in at the Aegis and attempting a vertical, overhead strike. The red Gundam jumped back and drew its beam rifle, pointing it at the Duel. Garret stopped, watching as Hilde aimed at his cockpit. "If you truly believe in what you're fighting for, pull that trigger right now and shoot me" Garret said, opening his cockpit. Hilde's eyes widened as she saw Garret so willing to her kill him.

"What happened to having a reason to keep living your life? Why are you giving up so easily?" Hilde asked, her gun still aimed at the other Gundam's cockpit.

"Because I know you won't do it" Garret replied firmly. The gun of Hilde's suit shook slightly and Garret closed his cockpit. He sheathed one of his beam sabres and walked to where his own rifle was, picking the weapon up and approaching the Aegis again. "Come with us Hilde…" he said, starting to raise his own rifle. Hilde pressed a button in her cockpit and the Guul she had been riding earlier flew towards her. She leapt up onto the small craft and began flying away. Within seconds, the DINN RAVEN Aston had been fighting was beside her, its shotgun out.

"Lord Alastair has given me orders to eliminate you for hesitating in the face of the enemy and attempting to flee from the battlefield" the pilot spoke.

"What?" she asked but the question was followed with a scream when the DINN fired through the Guul, destroying it and the legs of the Aegis. The red Gundam fell from the sky, the pilot screaming and Garret running towards the falling mobile suit. Aston took the opportunity to dash forward and sever the arms of the DINN before piercing the suit's wings with his heat whip.

Victoria soared towards the remaining Purity mobile suit and swung her shield at it ferociously, only barely missing with the sabre inside. She cursed as she fired her beam rifle and missed again, the DINN merely flying around casually to avoid her attacks. It was forced to move lower after shots from Marcel almost took its head off.

"Victoria, do you read me?" Captain Phillips called to the GuAIZ.

"Yes sir. What is it?" Victoria asked as she dodged a volley of shots from the DINN's machine gun.

"We're going to fire the Tristans on either side of the DINN and Marcel will fire on it from below. When it flies up to avoid the attack, take it out before it can react!" Richard explained.

"Roger sir!" Victoria said in acknowledgement and she saw the two dual-cannons on the Ceres rise up on either side of the bridge and take aim at the DINN RAVEN. They fired and the two sets of huge beams went either side of the DINN, Marcel's shot going beneath it. As expected the mobile suit flew upwards and Victoria flew at it. The DINN pulled its shotgun up and Victoria thrust out with her sabre. The two attacks connected at the same time. Victoria's sabre punctured the DINN's cockpit and the black mobile suit's shotgun fired, destroying the head and cockpit cover of the GuAIZ R as well as dealing heavy damage to its upper torso and shoulders.

"Victoria!" Marcel called as he remembered Commander Falcon's warning of the DINNs possibly being nuclear powered. He watched as Victoria shoved the Purity suit away with her shield and it fell towards the ground. Marcel covered his head with his arms when it exploded. He looked however when he only heard a normal explosion. "They mustn't have been nuclear after all" he said with a sigh of relief.


	15. Chapter 15

**I apologise once again for this update taking quite awhile. Between loss of internet and other things, getting on here to update has been essentially impossible. I'll be trying to update a few times over the next few days. Here is chapter 15.**

Garret stopped his Gundam and opened the cockpit when the Aegis crashed to the ground. He waited impatiently for the zip line to lower enough before he leapt off it and ran towards the red mobile that turned grey as it lost power. Aston landed near the Duel, the DINN RAVEN that had shot Hilde down being held by his GOUF. Garret scaled the remains of the fallen Gundam as he saw fires starting to spark from the damaged parts of the suit. He hit the emergency release for the cockpit and looked down at Hilde wearing an EAF flight suit that had been spray painted purple, the visor broken and several pieces of shrapnel from the wrecked cockpit imbedded in the flight suit itself. Garret could see two lines of blood running down the unconscious pilot's face as he reached in and undid her seatbelts. He pulled the girl from the cockpit and carefully climbed down the Aegis with her. Aston's white GOUF approached him and knelt down, holding out its hand for Garret to place Hilde on. He did so and watched as the mobile suit flew away with the remains of the DINN RAVEN in tow. Garret returned to his mobile suit and then walked back to the base where he boarded the Ceres. The ship loaded the wreckage of Hilde's Aegis before starting to move away.

Garret's eyes widened when he docked and saw the state of Victoria's GuAIZ and looked down to see the girl being carted away one of the beds from the sick bay. As soon as the Duel was docked, he scrambled from the cockpit and down into the hangar. "Victoria!" he called as the doctors took the young pilot away.

"She took a bad hit from that DINN, she fell unconscious as soon as she returned to the ship" Marcel explained.

"Is she hurt badly?" Garret asked urgently, taking his helmet off.

"I'm not sure, I didn't see her. The doctors were pretty quick to get her out of the GuAIZ and get her out of her though" Marcel replied. Both pilots watched as Hilde too was taken out of the hangar surrounded by doctors. "So that's the pilot of that Aegis?" Marcel asked and Garret nodded in response. "Apparently we're going to take the pilot of the DINN the Commander took out as a prisoner too" the pilot spoke, looking to the crimson haired man descending from his mobile suit. Marcel and Garret saluted as the young Commander approached them, he simply waved it off however. Garret often forgot that Aston was only twenty, three years older than himself. He seemed so much more mature and refined, he thought to himself.

"Are both of you ok? No injuries?" Aston asked them. Both responded with simple no sirs and the Commander nodded. "Good, I don't think we need anymore. Our fighting strength is low enough now with only two useable mobile suits, I hope Purity doesn't take this chance to attack..." Commander Falcon spoke. "Let's report to the bridge and see if we have new orders" he continued as he left the hangar. The three pilots all changed into their uniforms and walked to the bridge of the Ceres where Captain Phillips rose to greet them.

"Base command said there is no sign of any further enemy units in the area, it seems we've beaten them back for now" he said, the relief in his voice quite obvious.

"Do we have a new assignment yet?" Aston asked, taking a seat behind the map table at the rear of the bridge.

"As a matter of fact, we received our new orders in the middle of that little skirmish" the Captain spoke in reply. "We are to travel to the Northern Territory; there are reports of Purity forces on their way from Perth, most likely on their way to attempt a retake of Darwin" Richard spoke.

"That reminds me; nobody ever told me what happened at Perth. All I heard was that we failed to take the city" Garret pointed out, looking between Aston and Richard.

"Its more or less that simple, we were defeated. The ZAFT forces were overwhelmed and had to retreat. We fell back after we lost you and shortly after the order was given for everyone to retreat" Aston explained. "The Purity force was larger than we anticipated and the ZAFT forces unable to retreat were decimated" he continued.

"What happened to Lucian, did he make it out?" Garret asked.

"Yeah, we got a message from him just after the retreat order was given, he went to Adelaide" Marcel explained, Garret could tell he was happy the other young man had escaped the city.

"Marcel, I need you down in the hangar. Give the mechanics a hand fixing up your ZAKU" Aston said, looking at the brown haired young man. Marcel saluted the Commander and left the bridge. "Garret, how is your arm doing?" the crimson haired man asked.

"It's fine, the stitches are out and my shoulder is healed" the blonde pilot replied, taking a seat next to Aston.

"It worries me that Purity has gone to producing such high level mobile suits like the DINN RAVEN. They may not have given it the nuclear reactor like they are meant to have, but those machines are still quite deadly by themselves" Aston said grimly, looking at the map in front of him.

"I agree, it was quite unexpected to face something like that" Captain Phillips commented, glancing over his crew. "I personally think Victoria did quite well in bringing one down. She's picked up her piloting skills quite fast" he continued and Aston nodded in agreement.

"What do you think Garret, she's becoming quite a fine pilot is she not?" the Commander asked his silver-eyed friend.

"Uh... yes sir. She's gotten really good" Garret said, looking away from the other pilot.

"Haha! At this rate she might even surpass you!" Aston laughed. The remark earned him a glare from the young man which simply caused him to laugh harder. Garret could hear several chuckles escaping lips from around the bridge, even Captain Phillips let out a deep, booming laugh.

"Traitors" Garret said quietly, a slight smile crossing his lips. "What would you have me do while we head for the Northern Territory?" Garret asked, his eyes turning to Commander Falcon.

"You really don't know how to take a break do you?" Aston frowned.

"That's from hanging around you too long" Garret remarked, getting to his feet.

"Yeah that's probably true. Why don't you go check on Victoria, see how she's doing" Aston suggested. Garret nodded and left the bridge. The blonde haired young man reached the medical bay and knocked gently on the door. The doctor answered it, sliding his glasses up his face as he looked at the pilot.

"Which one do you want?" he asked, stepping out of the room and leaning against a wall. Garret guessed he was referring to Victoria and Hilde.

"Is Victoria up?" Garret asked in response.

"Not at the moment, I just gave her an anaesthetic for her pain so she'll be out for a little while" the older man spoke. "I think the Purity pilot might have just woken up though so you can see her if you'd like" he continued.

"Is Victoria badly hurt?" Garret asked.

"She has a pretty nasty gash on her left shoulder from shrapnel but other than that it's just minor cuts and bruises as well as a concussion" the doctor explained, fiddling with one of the buttons on his long, white coat. "Do you know that Purity pilot's name?" he asked.

"It's Hilde, I'm not sure of her last name. I'll come back and see Victoria later" Garret said as he started to walk away.

"I'll let Hilde know you were here then, Victoria should be up somewhere within the next two hours" the doctor said to the pilot as he watched the red uniformed young man walking away. Garret walked out onto the outdoor shooting range of the ship and took a gun and the safety wear from the first booth he reached. He pulled on the ear muffs and slid the goggles down over his eyes. He raised the gun and focused as he waited for the targets to start popping up.

Bang, bang, bang. His three shots pierced the heads of the first three targets to appear. Bang, bang. The next two were eliminated by shots to the heart. The final two targets surfaced, the first shot pierced the head of the closest target, the second hitting the left shoulder of the further one. "Dammit, didn't get that last one" he muttered, slipping a new clip into the pistol. He cleanly took down the next set of targets, watching as each one slid back into the floor. Garret pushed the ear muffs off so they fell to his neck and looked out over the rugged terrain the ship was passing over. He lifted the gun again and hit the button to start the targets appearing and began taking them out. Garret's shot rarely ventured far from the centre of the targets' heads or their hearts as he repeatedly blasted them away with the small handgun. He put the gun down when he ran out of clips to use and walked back inside the ship, heading back towards the medical bay.

As he neared the medical bay he saw Aston approaching him. "Garret, I have something I need you to do" the Commander said friend when he reached his friend.

"What is it?" Garret asked in response.

"I want you to talk to that Purity pilot, see if she will join us. See if she would be willing to help us fight against Purity" Aston explained.

"Is now really a good time? I mean she's just had the group she followed almost blindly turn on her in an instant, maybe we should give her a chance to let everything to sink in first" Garret said, looking at the crimson haired Commander.

"I know what you mean but if she has no intention of joining us we are going to send her somewhere safe that Purity cannot get to her" Aston told Garret. The younger pilot sighed and walked past the white uniformed man and into the medical bay. The doctor told him Hilde was in the second bed and the he walked where the older man pointed. He reached the end of the bed and Hilde's blue eyes looked up at him.

"You... what do you want?" the young woman asked, leaning back on the pillow behind her head.

"I came to talk to you" Garret replied, taking a seat and pulling it up next to the bed. "It looks like the situation is reversed from last time we met" he said with a faint smile as he noted the bandages on her upper body and head. Hilde watched the ZAFT pilot, her face near expressionless.

"Why didn't you just leave me to die?" Hilde asked.

"After I spent that entire fight between us trying to convince you to leave Purity and go live a proper life do you really think I'd just leave you to die? Especially at the hands of one of your... _comrades_" Garret said, the last word holding a sarcastic tone.

"I guess I failed Lord Alastair... I couldn't do what he expected of me" Hilde sighed, before wincing in pain from one of her injuries.

"You're still willing to call him 'Lord' even after he told the other soldiers to shoot you down if you so much as hesitated? He didn't care about you Hilde; he was using you as a pawn because of your skills. Since you didn't follow his orders blindly by shooting me down, he couldn't use you anymore so he tried to... dispose of you" Garret told the purple haired pilot, his expression and tone serious.

"What would you know?" Hilde retorted weakly but both of them knew Garret was right.

"Look, I'm not going to beat around the bush here, we want to know if you'll join us in our fight against Purity. If you don't we can send you somewhere they can't get to you" Garret explained.

"You want me to just drop everything I've ever known and try and kill the man that saved me all in a second just because you say so? Do you honestly think my loyalty is that shallow?" Hilde asked in response, the anger she felt at Garret's comment clear in her blue eyes.

"Well I guess I have my answer" Garret said quietly, rising to his feet. He walked past Victoria's bed, not even noticing the brunette watching him as he went. Hilde lay in her bed, staring up at the roof, thousands of thoughts passing through her mind.

"Why the hell is he so deadest on getting me to leave Purity?" she asked herself, clenching a fist. "Lord Alastair... is what he said true... were you really just using me?" she asked the air quietly. "Why is it that my mind is telling me he's right? I guess I've known it all along" Hilde sighed, closing her eyes. "Lord Alastair was only ever interested in my skills, he never saw me as a person... only a weapon. But how can I turn on the person that gave me a second chance at life?" she asked herself. She slowly drifted away into a troubled sleep as the thoughts wrestled in her mind.


	16. Chapter 16

**If it's not too much trouble, could I please have a few of my readers who have read all of the chapters so far leave a review after reading this chapter please? It would just be nice to get some feedback on how this is going so far, thanks.**

The Ceres travelled over the desert that covered central Australia, the sweltering heat causing the air around the massive ship to ripple. They would reach the border to the Northern Territory in a day or two and the crew were ready for a break, the heat made it hard to concentrate and work efficiently. Garret stood up on the deck in his uniform pants and a white singlet top, Marcel with him in the red pants and a black t-shirt. Victoria sat against the railing in her green skirt and a pink long-sleeved shirt, a sling holding up her wounded arm and her long hair tied back in a ponytail.

"It's so freaking hot!" Marcel groaned, sprawling out on the ground. Garret who was sitting on the railing watched his friend and let out a small laugh.

"Just imagine the people who live in areas like this" Garret said, looking out over the sand.

"They're nuts" Marcel remarked, covering his eyes with his hand. "I wanna go back to the PLANTs, it feels like forever since I've seen my family" he sighed quietly.

"You're not the only one, I really wanna see my mum and brother again" Victoria said, thinking about the two brought a smile to her lips.

"I don't think we'll be able to go back for a while. Not until Purity is defeated here in Australia" Garret said gloomily. The three sat, all thinking about their families and what it would be like when they could return to the PLANTs. They were snapped out of their trance when Commander Falcon walked out onto the deck. Marcel's and Victoria's eyes widened when they noticed their usually formal Commander's attire. His white jacket hung off his shoulders undone, the empty sleeves bouncing as he walked. His arms sat folded over his dark blue undershirt. He looked curiously at his two subordinates.

"Is something wrong?" he asked them.

"Well uh... it's just not normal..." Victoria said quietly.

"What's not normal?" Aston asked, honestly confused by their expressions.

"You sir. Seeing you so casual... it's kind of creepy..." Marcel explained, staring up at the man.

"I see... Well even Commanders are allowed to let their hair down every once in a while you know. I don't always look so dashing and knightly" the crimson haired man said with a cheeky grin.

"What the hell happened to our Commander...?" Marcel asked quietly to no one in particular. "I think the heat has broken him" the young pilot continued. Garret suddenly burst out laughing, almost falling backwards off the railing.

"Dashing and knightly? Oh god, that's rich! Man if only they'd seen you before you became a Commander!" he laughed, holding his stomach. Aston shot the pilot a glare but nothing could stop the blonde boy's laughing fit. Garret eventually caught his breath and then gave Aston an evil grin. "You hardly ever wore your uniform, always strutting around in jeans and singlets" Garret said, hoping off the railing.

"Yes well unlike some, I actually learnt a little respect for my occupation, instead of being a rebellious little bastard who has no respect for his superiors" Aston remarked, a triumphant grin on his face.

"Rebellious little bastard? This coming from the guy who took off in a DINN just to get a pizza from a nearby town because the poor little baby didn't like the cafeteria food" Garret stated, grinning from ear to ear.

"Commander Falcon seriously did that?" Victoria asked, trying to hold back a laughing fit like Garret's earlier outburst.

"Even you have to admit, the food on that ship was damned nasty!" Aston said loudly, trying to defend himself. Aston watched as the other three pilots burst out laughing and it was only a few seconds before he too gave in and joined them. The four of them sat around on the deck for an hour or so, talking about various things, a welcome distraction from everything they had been through lately. Their tranquillity was broken however when one of the bridge crew came running out onto the deck.

"C...Commander Falcon" he panted, bending over and placing his hands on his thighs. The red haired man got to his feet and approached the green uniformed soldier.

"What is it?" he asked, placing his hand on the man's shoulder.

"There's a large heat source ahead of us, a battleship" the soldier said, regaining his breath. "Captain Phillips wants all of you to gather on the bridge" he continued.

"Right, we'll be there immediately, get back and tell Captain Phillips we're on our way" Aston spoke. The solider nodded and ran back inside. "Well, let's get going. I have a very bad feeling in my stomach about this" the Commander said grimly as he did up his jacket and walked inside, the three red pilots following close behind. They arrived on the bridge to find the crew preparing for battle.

"Aston! That Archangel-class from the battle above Earth is approaching us" Richard said, turning to the four pilots. "It will be within firing range in three minutes" the Captain spoke.

"Right. Garret, Marcel, we're launching" Aston spoke, turning to his comrades, a serious expression on his face.

"What about me sir?" Victoria asked.

"You stay on the ship, your injuries still haven't healed and your GuAIZ hasn't been fully repaired yet. Help out on the bridge if you can" the Commander spoke and he ran from the bridge with Garret and Marcel close behind.

Garret climbed into the Duel and booted up the systems. He saw the cranes coming to take his Gundam to the catapult and shook his head. "Screw this" he said and he walked the suit to the launch platform. "Come on, hurry up!" he said as the Duel's shield and rifle were loaded on. When they were finally attached he lowered the visor of his helmet. "Garret Kross, Duel Gundam, soar!" he called as the blue and white Gundam shot from the Ceres, landing on the arid ground.

"Marcel North, ZAKU, bring it on!" the other red pilot called as he flew out to join Garret. The two started heading to the large blue and silver Archangel-class ship that approached them. The Cherubim, Garret thought to himself.

"This is Aston Falcon, GOUF Ignited, engage!" Aston yelled and his white mobile suit flew into the air above the others. Victoria stood on the bridge as she listened to Captain Phillips yelling orders.

"Load port side launchers with Dispars! Ready the Isoldes and Tristans! All hands prepare for anti-ship and mobile suit combat" Captain Phillips roared. The crew hurried to ready the weapons the Captain instructed. "Lower the bridge and turn hard to starboard, get them on our port side!" the black uniformed soldier roared and his orders were carried out. Garret watched as the Ceres turned so that the left side of the ship was facing the Cherubim.

"Sir, two mobile suits have launched from the enemy ship!" Erik called up to Richard.

"What are they?" the Captain asked.

"GAT-X103 Buster and ZGMF-X10A Freedom, it's that one from Sydney!" Erik called, causing the whole bridge crew to gasp.

"Aston! Watch it out there, one of your opponents is that black and red Freedom!" Captain Phillips called.

"You two hear that?" Aston asked the other two pilots and the both acknowledged that they had. "I want you two to let the Buster get past, let the Ceres handle it while we fight off the Tyranny" Aston spoke, drawing his sword.

"Is that ok to do sir?" Marcel asked.

"They'll be fine, Captain Phillips know what he's doing" Aston replied. Within seconds the Tyranny was upon them, the Buster flying close behind on a Guul.

"Allen, attack the enemy ship. I can defeat these weaklings myself" Xero, the pilot of the Tyranny spoke.

"But that bastard in the Duel is the one who captured Hilde, I want revenge dammit!" Allen said defiantly, raising his two guns.

"Lord Alastair told us not to kill them, are you going to disobey his orders?" Xero asked, aiming his beam rifle at the white GOUF that was fast approaching him.

"Fine, I'll attack the damned ship" Allen grumbled, ascending so he went over the ZAFT mobile suits and headed for the Ceres. He looked down with surprise when none of the enemy mobile suits so much as glanced at him as he passed.

Aston swung his sword down on the Tyranny which in turn raised its shield to block the strike. The black and red Gundam went to fire its rifle at the GOUF's cockpit when he was interrupted by a shot from the Duel's beam rifle. The Gundam flew back and switched its rifle for one of the two sabres on its hips.

"Commander, look out!" Garret called as the Tyranny soared forward, its sabre ready to strike. Aston's GOUF quickly descended when he turned off the thrusters and the Tyranny flew clean over it.

"Sit still!" Marcel roared, hurling a grenade at the Gundam. As the Tyranny began moving to avoid it, Marcel shot the projectile shot it and caused it to explode directly. He was startled when the Tyranny soared through the explosion, straight towards him. "Oh shit!" he yelled, throwing away his gun and pulling out his tomahawk. Xero smiled grimly, his waist mounted guns flicking out and destroying the ZAKU's arms. Marcel's eyes widened as the Tyranny got closer and closer, the pink blade of the beam sabre locked in his view. The Gundam thrust out and Marcel covered his face waiting for the impact to come. Xero turned down so the beam sabre sliced through the ZAKU's knees, causing the green mobile suit to fall backwards into the desert sand. "What...?" Marcel said quietly as the Tyranny then impaled the mobile suit's head and destroyed its main camera.

"Marcel!" Aston roared, flying at the Tyranny with Garret doing the same, running across the sand towards the Purity Gundam. Xero turned and watched the two mobile suits approaching.

"Fools... you don't stand a chance" the blonde pilot said, watching them through his visor. The Tyranny hurled its shield into the air and drew its second beam sabre, flying straight at the GOUF.

"So that's how you wanna play huh?" Aston said, his eyes narrowing through his white flight helmet as he readied his sword.

"Commander! Turn your cameras off!" Garret yelled, pointing his gun between the GOUF and Tyranny. Not bothering to ask what for, Aston trusted the other pilot and quickly switched off the cameras for his mobile suit. Garret fired off a grenade from the grenade launcher on the Duel's rifle and then shot it when it was between the two flying suits. He too turned his cameras off as he fired the beam rifle. The explosion from the grenade let out a bright flash that stunned Xero.

"A flash grenade" he murmured, covering his eyes. Aston flicked his cameras on, ignoring the still rather bright light even though it had faded slightly and pushed forward on his controls. He broke through the light and thrust out with his sword. Xero having expected such an attack had already ascended above where the GOUF would strike and aimed down with his shoulder and hip guns of his guns. "Too slow Coordinator" he spoke, letting loose the four attacks. The two shoulder mounted guns destroyed the GOUF's wing pack and the waist guns destroyed the arms and badly damaged the legs. The Tyranny within an instant descended, one beam sabre removing the white suit's head and the other removing its legs.

"Dammit!" Aston roared as the remains of his mobile suit fell from the sky. He quickly pulled on a lever on the console and ejected from the cockpit, Garret watched with relief as he saw him parachute to the sand.

"You bastard..." Garret said, his eyes turning back to the Tyranny. "You're going to pay for this!" he roared as his pupils dilated and he felt his consciousness almost leave his body. Garret felt as though he became one with the Duel, like he had felt when piloting the DINN over Sydney. The Tyranny descended upon him and Aston watched; his fingers crossed as he saw the seemingly untouchable mobile suit heading for his comrade. Xero swung down with his sabres, aiming to cut off the other Gundam's arms but Garret blocked the attacks, one with his shield and one with the sabre he drew quickly after putting his rifle away.

"What? He blocked it?" Xero asked; his voicing rising slightly in surprise. He smiled and began laughing quietly to himself. "Finally, someone who is actually going to challenge me!" he said, his laugh becoming louder. He attempted to kick the Duel but Garret leapt back and then boosted forward with his shield out. The shield slammed into the Tyranny's torso, pushing the Gundam upwards as they both moved into the air slightly. Garret swung around with his sabre as gravity started pulling his Gundam back to the ground but Xero flew backwards, avoiding the attack and distancing himself from the Duel.

Garret's eyes glanced over for a brief second as he watched the Ceres firing at the Buster with various guns and missiles while the Gundam hammered it with beam attacks. He tossed his beam sabre into his other hand and pulled out his rifle, aiming it towards the Ceres while the Tyranny came towards him again. He pulled the trigger and then stashed the gun away again, tossing the beam sabre back to this right hand. He didn't even watch as the beam rifle shot pierced the Guul the Buster was riding on and caused the Gundam to take a direct hit to the torso from several missiles as it fell to the ground. Garret crouched and raised his shield, covering his cockpit. He looked down at his console and saw he only had a quarter of his power left. "I need to end this" he said quietly, looking back up at the black and red Gundam. The Tyranny suddenly came to a halt and fired its shoulder cannons, the beams slamming into the already weakened shield of the Duel and buckling it, causing it to explode. Garret staggered back slightly but quickly regained his balance, drawing his second beam sabre.

"It's been fun playing, but let's end this shall we?" Xero asked, lowering his Gundam close to the ground and then dashing towards the Duel, his thrusters causing sand to fly in every direction. The two Gundams exchanged several beam sabre blows, making a crackling noise each time they connected. The Tyranny slashed out again, the four beam sabres clashing and the two mobile suits staring at each other as they pushed against each other. Xero pulled back and moved away from the Duel, watching the Gundam as Garret stepped back slightly. He swiftly hurled his beam sabre like a javelin and watched as it pierced the head of the blue and white Gundam.

"Shit!" Garret yelled as his cameras disappeared. Knowing the Tyranny would be approaching he opened his cockpit and saw how close the Gundam already was. He managed to block one sabre attack with his right sabre but his left arm was removed by the second swing. Garret narrowed his silver eyes, his dilated pupils watching the Tyranny through his restricted vision as he readied his sabre. Aston watched from the wreckage of Marcel's ZAKU as his friend's mobile suit was beginning to lose the fight. Garret went to the thrust out at the approaching Gundam when his Duel suddenly stopped and its Phase Shift Armour vanished. Garret looked down and saw that his suit had overloaded from the battery running dry. "No!" he yelled as the Tyranny reached him. Xero smiled grimly as he sliced off the Duel's right arm and then kicked it hard in the stomach, causing the powerless mobile suit to fall backwards.

"Too bad. You were pretty good" Xero commented, hovering above the fallen mobile suit, his wings extended fully, his Gundam untouched. "It's sad that you never had a chance in such an inferior mobile suit" Xero said as he turned and started flying towards the Ceres. He grabbed the badly damaged Buster by the arm and soared back towards the Cherubim, moving from side to side to avoid shots from the Minerva-class ship.

"Shoot that bastard down!" Captain Phillips roared to his crew.

"We can't sir, it's just too fast" Oliver Flynn, one of the ship's gunners said, trying to line up a shot with the Tristans.

"Sir! The Tyranny has boarded the Archangel-class and the ship is retreating!" Erik called and Richard noticed some of his men breathe sighs of relief.


	17. Chapter 17

"Alright let them go, get over there and retrieve the mobile suits, have all medical personnel ready when we land!" Richard called. The Ceres turned and flew towards the wreckages of the three ZAFT mobile suits and landed just back from them. Aston having checked that Marcel apart from having fallen unconscious had suffered no severe injuries was crouched at the open cockpit of the Duel. Inside Garret sat, the visor of his helmet cracked, his arms hanging limp at the sides of his seat. His eyes stared blankly down at the console of the Gundam, his lips trembling.

"Garret..." Aston said quietly, looking down at the young pilot. He turned when he saw several of the Ceres' medical staff running towards the Duel. The three pilots were taken back to the medical bay off the Ceres where they were all examined for any internal injuries.

"It's a miracle none of you were badly injured, some small cuts and bruises and some minor concussions is all you got" the doctor said, adjusting his glasses as he looked at the three pilots sitting before him.

"He wasn't trying to kill us, if he had been we would be" Aston said, putting his forehead in his hand. "That Tyranny Gundam is something else... even though he's the enemy I have to admit, that pilot is damn good" the Commander sighed.

"If you fought the Tyranny, it's no wonder you lost" the three male pilots heard Hilde say from across the room. They all turned around and looked at the female pilot who sat up, readjusting her bandages.

"Gee thanks, maybe you should go out and fight that thing next time" Marcel said, looking at the purple haired young woman.

"The pilot of the Tyranny, Xero, has never lost a fight. I fought him once before he joined Purity. Allen, Harrison and I were all in M1 Astrays and Xero attacked us in a Strike Dagger. He took down two of us before I finally managed to hit him. Then he took me down before I could fire another shot. That guy is not a Natural, no way in hell" Hilde explained.

"You're kidding? How the hell do we beat someone like that?" Marcel asked; his eyes wide with disbelief of Hilde's story.

"I don't know if he's completely invincible, Garret was holding his own pretty well out there until his Duel  
overloaded" Aston pointed out. "If we had some better suits, something on a better footing with that thing I think we'd have a chance" he continued. "I'll go up and see Captain Phillips, I'll see what we can work out. That thing needs to be destroyed" Aston said, slowly rising to his feet.

"I'm coming with you, I want to talk to your Captain" Hilde said.

"What do you want to talk to him about?" Aston asked.

"I might be able to help you, just let me talk to you and him in private" Hilde said. Aston could see in her eyes she was telling the truth so he nodded.

"Alright you can come up to the bridge with me. Garret, Marcel, out so she can get dressed" the Commander said walking outside with the two red pilots. "You two should go see Victoria, she's probably worried about both of you" Aston spoke, looking to his comrades.

"Right, come on Marcel" Garret said and the two walked in the opposite direction to the bridge. The two didn't have to go far until they found Victoria. The girl came running up to them and hugged them one at a time, having only one good arm to use.

"Are you both alright?" she asked, looking worriedly between them.

"We're both fine, no serious injuries. Cuts, bruises and broken pride, that's about it" Marcel said with a weak smile.

"That and trashed mobile suits" Garret said, looking at Marcel who nodded.

"You're lucky that guy didn't kill you, I saw the whole fight" the female pilot said. "Is the ship gonna be ok? I mean we have no mobile suits now, will we be ok if we get attacked?" she asked.

"Most of the ship's weapons are still functional aren't they?" Marcel asked and Victoria nodded in reply. "Then we'll be fine, Captain Phillips knows how to fight with a ship, I mean this thing took hardly any damage in that last fight even though the Buster is a heavy assault mobile suit" Marcel pointed out.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Aston is up making plans with the Captain right now, they'll probably get us to the closest friendly base and have us rearmed" Garret explained.

"That Purity pilot is with them too, I wonder what she wants to talk with Captain Phillips about" Marcel said, rubbing his chin a little.

"Her name is Hilde" Victoria said, seeming annoyed when Marcel had called her 'that Purity pilot'. "Who knows what they're talking about, maybe Hilde is telling them what she knew about Purity's plans" Victoria said as the three began walking to the cafeteria.

"She told us that the pilot of the Tyranny has never been beaten..." Garret muttered, looking at the floor.

"Judging by what happened out there today, I can see why. That guy is freaking insane" Marcel commented in response. Victoria looked at her two friends, clenching the fist on her good hand.

"So that's it? You're just gonna give up because of something someone said and because he beat you once? That doesn't mean he's invincible! Look at Kira Yamato and Athrun Zala, they got beaten plenty of times when they were fighting, they're still regarded as two of the best pilots ever though!" Victoria said angrily. Her expression of anger turned to confusion when she saw her two friends smiling.

"Who said we were giving up?" Marcel asked; an eager expression on his face.

"Not a chance. Next time we fight that bastard, we're taking him down!" Garret said, looking to Marcel. Victoria could clearly see the determination in the eyes of the two pilots. "Oh, and for the record, pretty much the only people who beat Kira and Athrun were Kira and Athrun" Garret continued, poking his tongue out at the girl.

"Oh shut up, you knew where I was going" Victoria replied. "Sorry for saying all that, the way you two were talking I thought you were giving up on trying to beat that guy" she apologised, turning slightly red.

"Don't worry about it" Garret said, walking past her and patting his hand on the girl's shoulder. The three walked into the cafeteria and sat down to eat as they watched a music video of a popular new song on the TV.

Captain Phillips sat in the chair in his quarters while Aston and Hilde stood in front of his desk. "So Richard, what do you think of her idea?" Aston asked, looking at the Captain.

"It will be risky, but I think it could work. Not to mention it would be much faster than going to Queensland to get resupplied. Do you think it's worth taking the risk?" he asked Aston in response.

"Well if we do what Hilde here suggests, we'll definitely be on better footing when we come across the Tyranny again" Aston pointed out. "I think we should do it" he said.

"How long will it take to get to where we need to go?" Richard asked, looking to the purple haired young woman.

"About a day from where we are. Just be warned you'll have to land the ship a decent distance away and you'll have to be ready to go on very short notice" Hilde warned.

"We can handle that. We'll depart immediately, you'll need to come onto the bridge and tell us the coordinates" Captain Phillips said, getting to his feet. He walked out of the room with Hilde following close behind, the opened jacket of the green ZAFT uniform Victoria had given her fluttering just behind.

"I hope this works..." Aston said quietly, leaving the room himself. The Commander walked onto the bridge and pressed the button for the Ceres' intercom. "All pilots, report to the briefing room immediately" he spoke and then turned. "I'll need you to come too" he said to Hilde as she put the coordinates for the ship's destination into the computer.

"Right, let's go" Hilde said, leaving the bridge with the crimson haired man.

Garret, Marcel and Victoria sat in the briefing room, looking up at Aston and Hilde at the front of the room. On the screen was a map of the area of desert they were in. "Well, we have a new plan thanks to Hilde here. I'll let her explain the details to you" Aston spoke, motioning to the purple haired pilot.

"I'll get right to the point, we're going to steal some Gundams from Purity" Hilde spoke, watching the reactions of the three ZAFT pilots. To her surprise, they all had eager grins and she could see determination in their eyes. "There is a Purity manufacturing base close to here where a lot of Purity's mobile suits are stored. I know for a fact that there are also a number of Gundams there too" Hilde explained.

"So how is this going down? They're not exactly gonna let a bunch of ZAFT pilots in" Marcel pointed out.

"I know the person in charge of the base, I can get him to let you all in if I say you're all new recruits looking for a Gundam under the orders of Alastair" Hilde explained.

"What is he contacts Alastair to verify that?" Garret asked and Hilde smiled.

"By that point we'll be boarding the Gundams and making our grand escape. Also make sure you only wear casual clothes" the purple haired pilot commented.

"I have to know something first. You were so deadest on serving Purity, why are you helping us now? How do I know I can trust you?" Marcel asked, staring dead into Hilde's eyes.

"Marcel!" Victoria said loudly, glaring at her friend but Aston raised his hand to tell her to be quiet. He knew the question would come up and he too wanted to hear Hilde's response.

"It's true, for as long as I can remember I have served Purity. However, in that last battle where I was shot down by my own comrades, my eyes were opened. I will join you for one reason, I need to confront Alastair and find out the truth of what he wants to do with Purity" Hilde explained. "Well that's the short version anyway" she continued.

"I trust you Hilde" Victoria said with a smile, getting to her feet. Hilde thanked the girl and turned to Garret and Marcel.

"Me too" Garret said with a smile and a nod. Marcel also nodded and they all turned to Aston.

"Alright then, we move out around this time tomorrow, make sure you're all ready" the Commander spoke, leaving the room with Victoria and Hilde following behind.

"So when exactly did those two get so close?" Marcel asked Garret as they lingered in the briefing room.

"To be honest I'm not entirely sure. They were both staying in the sick bay at the same time so maybe something happened between them then" Garret said with a small shrug of his shoulders. The two left the room and returned to their quarters to rest until their mission.

Garret walked into his room and looked the door. He took off his jacket and fell backwards onto his bed. His head rolled over and he saw a photo on his desk on the other side of the room. He got back onto his feet and walked over to the photo on the desk. He looked down and stared at the three red-clad soldiers all smiling in front of mobile suits. He noted himself in the middle then Aston and Cecil on either side of him. "I'm going to end this war Cecil, no matter what" he spoke to his friend in the picture. "I'll take down Purity so you can rest in peace" he said quietly before returning to his bed. He took off his boots and laid down, closing his eyes.

"So what's the news with that DINN RAVEN, can we repair it?" Aston asked Richard as he sat down on the bridge. Richard shook his head in response.

"After we got the pilot's body out the mechanics looked at the systems, they were fried. He must have overloaded them before he shot himself" the Captain explained.

"Suicide is a pretty drastic measure to avoid being captured…" Aston said darkly. While Aston had been bringing the remains of the Purity mobile suit to the Ceres, the pilot had shot himself, leaving a rather nasty sight for the mechanics who went to investigate the cockpit.

"I guess that's what Purity tells them to do if they're captured. They must be desperate to not let any of their plans fall into enemy hands" Captain Phillips said. "So are you doing ok? You took a fair beating from the Tyranny out there" he continued.

"Yes, thankfully we're all fine. None of us suffered any severe injuries. I think all that defeat really did was strengthen Garret's and Marcel's resolve to beat that guy. I don't think he'll get away unscathed next time" Aston said, his eyes narrowing.

"I get the feeling you're determined to give that guy a beating too" Richard said, a faint grin reaching his lips.

"Ha. I can't exactly deny that one" Commander Falcon said with a small laugh.

"Do you think this mission is going to go exactly the way Hilde has planned it tomorrow?" Richard asked and Aston's expression turned serious.

"No mission ever goes perfect. We just have to hope nothing goes drastically wrong. But personally, I think we'll be fine" the Commander commented. "In any case I'm off to get some rest, my head is killing me" he said, rising to his feet and leaving the bridge.


	18. Chapter 18

**This will be the final chapter of part 1 of this fanfiction. I will start uploading part 2 as soon as possible and I will add an extra chapter to this part with a link to part 2. I hope you have all enjoyed part 1 and will continue to read the second and third parts as well.**

**Thank you all for reading and please enjoy the final chapter of Gundam SEED Purity Pt. 1**

Garret's eyes opened as he heard an announcement in his room. "All pilots please proceed to the hangar immediately" he heard the voice say as he groggily got to his feet. He remembered what Hilde had said and put on a pair of black jeans, a white t-shirt and a brown leather jacket. He left his room and headed towards the hangar. On the way he bumped into Victoria. The girl had her hair tied in a ponytail and was dressed in a blue long-sleeved shirt, white slacks and a loose, purple jacket. Garret noted she had removed her sling and the bandages she had been wearing.

"Are your injuries healed?" the blonde pilot asked as the two began walking together.

"Yeah, the doctor said last night that I was fine to take off my bandages" Victoria said, stretching her arms.

"Are you gonna be ok to do this?" Garret asked and Victoria simply nodded in response. The two arrived in the hangar and found Aston, Marcel and Hilde already waiting. Marcel was dressed in a sleeveless grey top, black fingerless gloves and a pair of black trackpants. Aston stood in a navy blue long-sleeved shirt with a black leather vest over the top and a pair of blue jeans with a pair of calf-length white boots. Hilde was wearing a black top and grey track pants with a black trench coat over the top that hung loose on her shoulders. Her left arm was suspended in a sling and she still had a bandage wrapped around her head and a piece of gauze on her cheek.

"Alright, so are we all good to go?" Aston asked and everyone nodded as they climbed into the jeep that sat at the exit to the hangar. Aston got into the driver's seat and Hilde sat in the passenger's seat while the other three pilots climbed into the back. The Commander sped out of the ship and drove along the sand, the Ceres sinking away behind them. "So we just keep heading straight from here?" Aston asked, looking at Hilde for a brief moment.

"Yes, we should be there soon" Hilde replied.

"I'm gonna get something powerful!" Marcel said with a grin.

"We can't really afford to be picky, we need to just get what we can" Garret said in response.

"Yeah I know. Let's just make sure we get something that can mess up the Tyranny" Marcel said. Garret noticed that Marcel had changed, he used to be so quiet and timid but now he was more confident and outspoken.

"Hilde, will you be ok to fly a mobile suit with your arm?" Victoria asked the purple haired pilot, leaning over near her.

"Yes I should be fine, I'll probably just pay for it later" Hilde replied, a smile on her face. After about forty-five minutes they arrived at the base, a large blocky structure was a massive steel wall around the complex. The jeep stopped at the checkpoint where several soldiers armed with machine guns stood.

"Halt! Identify yourselves!" the eldest of the men said loudly, aiming his gun at Aston. Hilde reached into her coat and pulled out an id card.

"Hilde Regent, id number 83620417" she spoke, showing the man the card. He studied it for a moment and then rubbed his chin.

"Alright, you're clear, but who are these?" the man asked, motioning to the ZAFT pilots.

"They're new recruits for Gundam pilots as chosen by Lord Alastair here to get their mobile suits. They're still waiting for their id, I'll vouch for their identities" Hilde explained. The man nodded and motioned for the jeep to enter the base. They pulled into a parking lot and climbed out of the vehicle. "Ok, don't screw around, let's get into the hangars while they're calling the base master and get some Gundams" Hilde said, looking towards a large door. The five of them walked quickly towards the door. "The base master knows me so he won't think anything straight away but he'll eventually pick up on the fact that he was never notified of new pilots so he'll make a call, we have to be getting out of here by then" the female pilot spoke as they slid the door up and went inside.

The group was eyed off by several Purity soldiers as they examined the mass-produced mobile suits stationed in the hangar. "Over there" Hilde hissed to the ZAFT pilots motioning to a grey mobile suit between two ZAKUs.

"Shotgun" Marcel said quickly and he began walking towards the Gundam. "That's a Chaos, one of ZAFT's second stage series" he said as he examined the mobile suit when he reached it. The group had decided that Hilde would send a message to each of their phones when they were to board the Gundams and make their getaway. Hilde led Garret, Aston and Victoria through the hangar until they found another Gundam, one that just about every soldier knew.

"I want that" Victoria said, her eyes narrowing in on the grey Gundam. She approached and looked up at the Strike, its grey body towering over her. "I'll fly you" Victoria whispered to the mobile suit.

"Well look at that, they put three together for us. A Duel, a Saviour and… I'm not actually too sure what that is" Aston said, gazing down the line of Gundams. The first two were the typical grey colour of a Gundam but the other was orange.

"I think I'll take the Duel, I'm familiar with it" Garret said moving towards the mobile suit.

"I'll take the Saviour" Hilde said walking over to it.

"So it looks like I'm left with you, not that I know what you are" Aston said to the large orange and red Gundam. Hilde flipped out her phone and typed "Gundam" on the keypad and then sent the message to the others. Four phones vibrated and five soldiers leapt into action, boarding the Gundams they were all in front of. They could hear the commotion below them which they ignored as they closed the cockpits.

"Garret Kross, Duel, soar!" Garret roared as he booted up the Gundam, making the announcement out of habit.

"Marcel North, Chaos, bring it on!"

"Victoria Mays, Strike, mobilise!"

"Hilde Regent, Saviour, let's rock!"

"Aston Falcon, Sword Calamity, engage!" Aston called, reading the name of the mobile suit on the screen as it appeared. All of the Gundams except for Aston's Calamity engaged their Phase Shift and watched as Purity soldiers scrambled for their machines. Hilde raised her beam rifle and blasted a hole in the wall of the hangar before running through it, tearing away the wall with her suit's hands where she didn't fit. Garret and Aston quickly followed her.

"Victoria, follow me!" Marcel called, taking out a section of the wall with his own beam rifle. Victoria pushed over several mobile suits and followed the green Gundam out into the open area of the base.

"Victoria, there's three containers over there holding the Striker packs for your Gundam, you, Marcel and Hilde all take one each. Garret and I will concentrate on holding off Purity mobile suits!" Aston called to the female pilot before he left the hangar. Victoria and Marcel hurriedly grabbed the containers and watched as Hilde walked through the hole Marcel had made and grabbed the last one. Aston drew both his Gundam's sword and watched as Garret readied his rifle and shield. They were quickly set upon by several GINNs.

"Commander, be careful! These Gundams still have Purity OS on them, they won't fight at full capacity!" Garret called, turning slightly to see the three Gundams escaping with the Striker packs.

"Ha! That'll just make it more fun!" the Commander spoke, readying his swords. The two ZAFT pilots slowly backed away as the GINNs approached, the Purity mobile suits raised their guns and fired a hail of bullets at the two Gundams which was deflected by their Phase Shift.

"You're no match!" Garret yelled, taking down two of the five suits with his beam rifle, blasting through their cockpits. Aston engaged the green beam blades in his swords and sliced clean through one of the remaining three as it charged at him with its sword. He raised the arms of the Sword Calamity and fired off the two rocket anchors, slamming them into the cockpits of the remaining GINNs and threw them to the ground.

"Come on, let's move it!" Aston called to Garret and the two turned to follow their comrades. They could see the Ceres appearing in the distance, coming full speed towards the base. "Everyone, when the Ceres gets here board it immediately, ignore the Purity mobile suits!" Aston called and everyone acknowledged the order. The ship reached them quickly and the three Gundams carrying the containers leapt on board.

"Aston, there are three Murasames and a Gaia heading this way, should we fight them?" Garret asked, noticing the marks on his radar.

"Reckon we can take them with these crap operating systems?" the red haired man asked.

"They've got the same problem, and no way they're as good as us" Garret said with a eager grin.

"Richard! Give us covering fire, we're gonna take on these three suits before they become a hassle when we try to fall back!" Aston called to the Ceres as he watched the three flying mobile armours approaching, the black wolf-like machine tearing towards himself on Garret on the ground. The Murasames closed in first, diving down at the Sword Calamity. "Oh no you don't!" Aston said, cleaving straight through one of them with his sword before the other two pulled up and sped away from the orange Gundam. Garret aimed and fired his rifle through another, leaving only one Murasame and the Gaia that was almost upon them. "I'll get you!" Aston called sheathing one of his sword and quickly taking one of the Gundam's beam boomerangs from its shoulder and hurling it at the mobile armour. The attack struck home, the boomerang sawing through the Murasame before circling around and returning to Aston.

"Gaia!" Garret called firing at the black machine, causing it to change its collision course with the Calamity. "I'll get you!" the blonde pilot roared, putting away his rifle and drawing one of his beam sabres as he charged at the Gaia that ran on all fours towards him. Aston fired off his anchors and latched onto the front legs of the Gaia with them, pulling the suit into the air as Garret drove his beam sabre through its cockpit. The black Gundam exploded and the two ZAFT pilots headed for the Ceres.

"Ok, I like this thing" Aston said as he leapt onto the ship.

"Nice moves out there, you're gonna be taking everything down in that thing once we rewrite the OS" Garret commented as he docked his suit next to Victoria's Strike. Garret and Aston climbed out and joined their comrades.

"Farris!" Aston called, motioning for the chief mechanic to come over.

"Yeah what is it?" the man asked in his rough voice.

"I want that Gundam recoloured, I'm not a fan of that orange and yellow. Make all of the orange silver and the yellow black" the Commander spoke to the older man.

"Well, someone has their priorities right" Marcel remarked.

"You're just jealous because you can't recolour yours" Aston said in response, not looking at the younger pilot.

"Are you ok Garret, you didn't get injured did you?" Victoria asked, looking at the silver-eyed pilot.

"Nope, I'm all good" Garret said with a smile, calming the brunette girl down.

"That's good then, I hoped you wouldn't get hurt because of that restricting OS" Victoria explained.

"It actually performed pretty close to my old Duel, I think Purity might be stepping it up a bit" Garret commented, looking at the now grey Gundam.

"Let's report to the bridge, we need to see if we have new orders" Aston said to the group. "Oh and Hilde, as far as I'm concerned, welcome to the team" he spoke to the purple haired woman. Hilde nodded and the group proceeded to the bridge of the Ceres.


	19. Part 2 Link

As I said in Chapter 18, this 'chapter' will have a link to part 2 of this story which I have now uploaded. Please click below to access the fanfiction and please subscribe to know straight away when I update.

s/8668116/1/Gundam-Seed-Purity-Pt2

For some reason, the full link is not showing up on here so please be sure to put this site's URL before what copying is above and be sure to put a / after the .net

If for some reason this still does not work, you can access the story from my profile. Sorry for any trouble this may cause.

I know I ask this a lot, but could I please get some reviews either on the fanfiction itself or via private message as I really need to know people's thoughts on my work and any problems you may have with what I have written so far. I apologise if the constant asking for these is getting annoying at all but the reviews on my work help me to make the next two parts more enjoyable for all my readers.

Thanks for reading so far,

Chrome.


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